PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: 14th April, 2021.
Revolutionary approach to upgrading international candidates’ skills for the Health, Care and Medical Sector
The Calibre project, developed during 2020 and launching today, 14th April 2021, demonstrates disruptive innovation in the training and staff recruitment in the health, care and medical sectors.
The project ultimately aims to help address skills shortages in the health, care and medical sectors. By providing international candidates with the skills and knowledge that they may lack and then matching those candidates to roles in the health, care and medical sectors. The Calibre programme will help employers to plug the gaps in the recruitment of skilled doctors, nurses and care workers.
Calibre proudly embraces and tangibly puts into effect the concept of Global Britain and therefore fully supports the British Prime Minister, The Rt. Hon. Boris Johnson’s assertion to build back better by ensuring the UK is stronger, safer and more prosperous. That includes the health and care sector’s workforce too.
The Calibre project is the first of its kind in combining the following key elements required for career success in the health, care and medical sectors:
– Specialist in-depth English Language Training for health, care and medical professionals.
– Matchmaking / introduction to an appropriate employer
– Cultural Induction and Community Connect programme
– Employer on-boarding programme.
Shaped by our partner school’s experts and with invaluable guiding input from both UK international community members and overseas nationals working in the National Health Service (NHS) and private [residential] health & social care sectors, Calibre’s ground-breaking project combines a holistic ‘need to know’ approach for both employers in the sector and potential new internationally-sourced employees (or overseas nationals currently employed in the UK) who seek to consolidate and advance their career development opportunities, Candidates will also boost their professional profiles through the course’s structuring and content, which are based on sound technical knowledge and teaching expertise, combined with learning from lived experience workplace contexts.
Centred on a specialist English language course plus several additional career and lifestyle-focused training modules, the Calibre programme will not only help candidates maximise their potential for making successful job applications, but also improve their experience of working in the UK health and care sectors, enabling them to reach their full career potential.
Medical staff retention, especially in the field of nursing and healthcare worker professionals’ categories, has long been a major issue and very costly and disruptive for the NHS and to a lesser extent, the private care sector.
The NMC mandatory requirements and the IELTS English language thresholds do not ultimately eliminate problems that can arise at hospital ward, visiting, or GP service provision levels, because without intending this, they do not take into account full lived-experience of new overseas recruits or employee – employer needs.
Given that many of its staff are recruited from an international pool, the NHS and the private care sector often encounter tensions and misunderstandings in the workplace, including with regard to equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) issues. These can lead to significant culture-based problems, from preventable racism and race / culture / religious faith issues to difficulties within interactions with other Diverse Communities (LGBT especially), for instance.
In the case of overseas recruits, the NHS commonly simply lacks the right mechanisms at NHS Trust /hospital levels to provide the necessary support for these key staff members. Calibre, because of its special services and related experience and expertise base helps to resolve these major needs and support deficits.
In an interview with the British Medical Journal (BMJ) *, The Rt. Hon. Jeremy Hunt, MP – the Secretary of State for Health & Social Care between 2012 and 2018 has said that he now regrets not having acted earlier to expand numbers of doctors and nurses in the NHS. As Chair of the Parliamentary Health and Social Care Select Committee, its report published in October further highlights the absence of defined career development and pathways for social care workers that harms retention.
He now says that workforce planning needs urgent reform and he has called on the government to publish figures on staff requirements each year. It is Calibre’s view that such figures should include an estimate of the numbers of overseas staff who may need to be recruited to help fill the skills and numbers gaps while addressing directly the central issue of retention once recruited.
In the BMJ interview, The Rt. Hon. Jeremy Hunt, MP said: “If you don’t plan for the NHS workforce strategically, it ends up costing the taxpayer much more because the NHS then ends up recruiting locum doctors and agency nurses who are much more expensive.”
Calibre’s service will supplement and enhance relevant induction training that may be provided by NHS Trusts, hospitals and other health and care sector employers. It provides an understanding of the workplace and living contexts that overseas candidates will commonly encounter, but which are not always fully covered in standard induction programmes.
Course structure:
The Calibre Medical English course is designed to help participants improve their knowledge of the sort of English required in the fields of medicine, nursing and health/care. Improved language skills will advance candidates’ career prospects and allow them to communicate fluently with their counterparts (and perhaps work) in the UK and other English-speaking countries.
Calibre’s English for Medicine / Medical English students are doctors, nurses and other health practitioners from around the world. Many of Calibre’s clients are medical specialists from leading hospitals and clinics. Operating with small class sizes means that participants make faster progress in their studies. The Specialist English Course duration is 12 weeks.
Cultural Induction and Community Connect programme:
This module is an additional culturally- and vocationally-orientated course that is designed to introduce participants to the workings of the medical and care sectors in the UK from start / induction to career development and progression needs, whether the participants will be working in a care home, paramedic, GP surgery or hospital settings.
Course content includes consideration of the various regulatory bodies, organisational structures and operational systems that apply in the UK, including communication clarity and effectiveness. This module aims to ensure that participants are prepared for the rigours of work at delivery level in the appropriate sector and potentially support them in their sector-specific test(s) and registration (e.g. NMC test for nursing, etc.).
In addition, Calibre staff will also help the student candidate to integrate into the UK workplace by means of Calibre’s “Community Connect” service: Community Connect is not provided by other service providers and is based on the lived experiences of internationally-sourced employees working in the sector and includes insights into their experience of living and working in the UK. This provides candidates with significant support and will prove valuable to all Best Practice and aspiring Best Practice employers in the NHS and the private health and care sectors. This Cultural Induction and Community Connect module runs for 4 weeks.
Onboarding programme
This module is a further vocationally-orientated course that is designed to help participants to integrate in a very practical way into the medical and care sectors in the UK. It is designed to run in advance of the worker’s commencement in their new role and then assist them as they start work in that role. Each Calibre candidate is assigned a dedicated support tutor, whose role is to provide practical input, guidance & support just ahead of and then throughout the first year of their developing career. Duration of the Onboarding module is 4 weeks’ intensive oversight + 1 year ongoing aftercare.
Assessment and Certification
Students taking a Calibre Medical English or English for Health / Care course at one of our partner institutions may prepare to sit a specialist medical English exam, such as the Occupational English Test (OET) and students are also encouraged to take the IELTS test as a score of 7.0 or above in this exam (with a minimum of 6.5 in any component) is accepted by most medical organisations as an English language component of their qualification requirements for work in the UK.
Assistance with Registration / Job / Career Matchmaking
During the Calibre programme – and conditional upon obtaining the necessary English level and other pre-requisites – Calibre candidates will be assisted to register with one of the UK’s regulatory bodies (such as the NMC, GMC, HCPC) and our partner recruitment agencies will introduce the candidates to appropriate paid positions, carefully matched to the candidate’s experience, qualifications, registration and visa status.
– ENDS –
enc.: photos show:
- Students and staff at partner college ETC International College.
- Calibre’s Management Team (left to right): Dr Raymond Davies, Mr David Jones, Mr Alan Mercel-Sanca,
Editor’s Notes:
* Read the full BMJ Interview with Jeremy Hunt: https://www.bmj.com/content/372/bmj.n335
Source: The BMJ (British Medical Journal): 10 / 02 / 2021.
The Calibre Project – an overview
Calibre is a tripartite enterprise, developed to plug skills gaps in various specialist sectors in the UK and overseas.
Although Calibre is developing solutions for the Defence and Aerospace sectors, its current focus is on the medical, health and care sectors.
Calibre has a different approach to training and careers as its emphasis is on career outcomes: the extensive team of advisers and trainers works closely with employers and future employees with the aim of delivering specialist skills and sub-skills directly to the workforce of the future.
Proud to be headquartered and integral to the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole international economic powerhouse, Calibre is focused on individual career creation within the dynamic UK economy, sitting strategically between the private and public sectors.
MISSION, VISION & VALUES
Calibre’s mission is to transform individual careers outcomes within chosen fields of employment.
VISION
Calibre’s vision is to become the most successful training organisation in transforming careers:
- trusted by employers and partners
- dedicated to successful individual career outcomes
- committed to our mission
- drivers of training and employment innovation for organisations and individuals
- highly effective in meeting the UK skills gap
- transforming the productivity of the UK economy.
VALUES
Calibre is a values-led organisation that has been designed around three core principles: Experience, Diligence and Enabling Others.
EXPERIENCE
Calibre’s intuition and success are underpinned by the experience of its team members. The Calibre team’s track record of smart, strategic and independent thinking has enabled it to identify skills gaps and develop bridging programmes that support the needs of the sectors in which it operates. The strength of the Calibre team comes from the convergence of three exceptional strands of expertise into one innovative set of training and development solutions.
Learn more about the Calibre management team here: www.calibre.work/about-2
DILIGENCE
Calibre is committed to achieving excellence in all that it does and this necessarily involves helping employers and employees achieve excellent outcomes. The team members are renowned for their diligence, seamless execution and a peerless approach to acquiring and nurturing careers to unleash their potential. Put simply, the Calibre team believes that the harder/smarter it works, the more its employee and employer clients will achieve and benefit.
ENABLING OTHERS
Calibre has a devolved approach to its team, liberating capacity within the organisation and trusting the career leaders it trains to be the very best they can be; providing expert and highly personal leadership to them and in turn enabling swift-yet-sound decision making on their career path chosen – always with an eye firmly on the long-term outcome for trainees, candidates and their employers.
Calibre offers its services to NHS Trusts, NHS Employers and NHS Innovation at national level and welcomes the opportunity to connect with Trusts’ recruitment, learning, and induction services leads.
Contact Details for any media enquiries:
David Jones,
C / O International Contacts,
17 Barnes Road,
Bournemouth.
BH10 5AQ.
Mobile: 07966 578999.
Email: david@calibre.work
Website: www.calibre.work