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The NHS graduate scheme is a two year scheme, it’s split in to four specialisms, so you could either do HR, Finance, General or Informatics. I’m on the general scheme, which means we do three placements over the course of two years and in conjunction with that we also do a post graduate diploma in health and public leadership.

For the three placements, they’re split into a strategic placement and then also a flexi placement and the flexi placement can be outside of the NHS, and it’s really an opportunity for you to see different ways of working and get an idea of different managerial techniques, so when you come back into the NHS you're better equipped to deal with the challenges that face you.

There’s a lot of work to do on the scheme, as I said, you’ve got three placements over two years. You’ve got educational components, you’ve got separate experiential learning and action learning steps and then the expectation that you should be networking; meeting as many people as you possibly can. As well as interacting with a wide range of state holders and different organisations that all interact with the NHS. If people are thinking about applying for the graduate scheme, I’d definitely say do it, but before doing it I think they should extensively really look at the NHS - is this a place they want to work?

It’s going through a huge period of change at the moment, and they’ve got to be excited by that challenge, you shouldn’t be afraid of the fact that the NHS is going through change, it, it does so in a sort of cyclical nature, and the thing to remember is this is an exciting place to work but with that obviously there comes a lot of pressure and a lot of responsibility and that’s from the moment you start on the ‘grad’ scheme really. You have got the responsibility and you’ve got a job to do and you need to make sure you’re willing to do it.

You get access to clinicians; you get access to senior managers; directors; chief executives; and everybody’s so welcoming and really glad that you’re in the NHS and you’re excited about a career in the NHS.

On the negative side the one thing that did surprise me is just how difficult the work would be, just the balancing your time, if you want to have a social life and do the education and do the work placements and all the other bits that come into it, you have to be very organised and, I think that’s one thing that the graduate scheme has taught me. It makes you very self aware, really makes you understand this is what I’m good at this is what I’m bad at, there’s a lot of challenges but there’s also a lot of support and a lot of opportunity to help you improve.

The scheme is mainly about developing future leaders to go work in the NHS, so they’ll take graduates who have potential, not necessarily the experience but it’s all about your potential and putting you into two placements in the NHS and put you in at the deep end and see how you get on.

You can expect development as well, which is particularly good for the HR stream which is the one I’m on. In terms of getting your CIPD qualification it’s a huge benefit of the scheme and they give you the time to go and complete that in block weeks study. In terms of other support, I would say peer networks who are the people that are on the scheme with you are a fantastic way to supporting you throughout the scheme for problems and we have action learning sets together and we meet up quite regularly and probably one of the best support networks you’ll have and it’s important to keep that going as well.

The positives are definitely the development opportunities you get and the CIPD. And then, the chance you’re given this responsibility in your placements and you’d never get that usually, so the thing you get to do especially in operational HR point of view, you’re supporting managers from day one and you really have to know what you’re doing and it can feel quite intimidating. Sometimes your placement may not be what you expected it to be and you may not be given the amount of things you were expecting to do and it really depends on you as a person to make that placement work you and go out and ask people for work or ask people if they want any help.

If you’re applying, I would say obviously research the NHS, it’s a huge organisation with so many different layers, especially at the moment with all the changes going on with GP commissioning; it’s really important you’re up to date with how that all works. Also, look outside your specialism, I’m currently on the HR specialism, but it’s nice to know what’s going on outside of HR.

Make yourself as visible as possible to anyone in the organisation. Network as much as you can, because you never know a ‘chance’ meeting with somebody could lead to future jobs once you’ve left the scheme and it’s something that‘s really hammered home to us on the scheme all the time that networking is really important as well.

The NHS graduate management training scheme is a two year developmental journey taking you from a fresh-faced student to a manager of the NHS and organisation and people over two years and it does this in four ways. Firstly, it exposes you to the day-to-day activities of an NHS Manager in what we do, how we do it, the barriers to success and how to achieve project implementation; secondly, it exposes you to a wide range of knowledge relevant to your specific competencies and your specialism, mine being ‘informatics’. It also then makes you a future leader by exposing you to Chief Execs, senior managers, politicians who remember your name after you’ve spoken to them and that’s amazing as they give you tips and they often say “if you succeed, I’ll happily give you a job after”, which is brilliant.

And finally, it teaches you how to network. People think networking is easy, but it really isn’t. Remembering the names and make sure you get the most out of the networking opportunity and make sure you don’t bombard them with information, is a real skill.

They can expect a wealth of support; there is a triple management layered system implemented with your LDMs, placement managers, programme managers. They are all there to support you on your journey and make sure you go through barriers and succeed at the end of it and become a leader, and that is fantastic.

There are rewards, a wealth of rewards depending on your perspective different rewards you receive. If you’re interested in financial rewards the graduate scheme offers in 99% of cases a brilliant job afterwards, a high paid job a senior job in the organisation. But for me personally, the rewards are in shaping the NHS to the values I have of equitable society and improving the betterment of people and that’s what really gets me going.

Orientation was amazing! I observed theatre processes; I observed post-mortems in the mortuary; I observed child birth; I observed psychiatric therapy; I was in a prison-focused treatment; I left an emotional wreck after the first two months, but what it did was make you realise why you’re here and what we’re doing and why an efficient health service is really important and I didn’t expect that. I thought I would be shadowing a couple of managers, but that was really amazing being out there with the ambulance crew hitting the 999s, it was really inspiring.

It’s an incredibly tough application process, but the important thing you can do is research the NHS and keep your ear to the floor. Make sure you’re aware of all the reforms; make sure you understand our key core values; what we want to achieve; what we want to do; and if you have that base knowledge you can then apply scenarios to that knowledge and really fly through the interview process because you’ll have an understanding.

You’re really important so just know that and try and get involved as much as you can. And my last tip between success and failure on the ‘grad’ scheme is taking opportunities as opportunities will fly by if you just ignore them. But if you take them, you will be the future Chief Execs of the organisation.