Our Learning and Development team support a wide range of development offers.
Continuing professional development and preceptorship
We will support you to continue developing in your role and support your career aspirations. This may include programmes that the Trust delivers or support for you to attend external courses, as well as a ‘time to learn’ offer for self-directed learning, trying new things or coaching / mentoring support.
We also offer a year-long preceptorship programme to support all newly registered professionals helping you develop from being a student to becoming an independent and confident practitioner.
For nurses, allied health professionals (AHPs) and support staff in clinical roles, we offer a comprehensive package of clinical training to give you the confidence to carry out all aspects of your role in caring for patients, and working with service users.
Developing in your role and career at HCT
We are passionate about career development, whether that be development within your existing role, or supporting you to develop beyond your current one. The Trust's ‘Development Handbook for Managers and Staff’ contains all of the offers available, including development programmes, apprenticeships and shadowing opportunities to support your personal development planning and career discussions. Our career coaching offer is available to all staff, and offers you the opportunity to meet with a career coach, instead of your manager if you prefer.
Our apprenticeship programmes are a key part of this, supporting many of our support staff to become registered nurses and allied health professionals (AHPs).
Leadership development
We are committed to offering you continuous leadership development through a comprehensive development programme that includes opportunities for leadership training, action learning sets, coaching, and access to regional strategic leadership programmes. We work with NHS Elect and the NHS Leadership Academy to provide bespoke training for our leaders, as well as access to wider learning opportunities.
Research
HCT has a dedicated research team which is the first point of contact for staff involved in research, as well as local promotion of specific trials and research in general.
Statutory and mandatory training
The Trust delivers statutory and mandatory training to the national Core Skills Training Framework, which all staff must complete to keep everyone safe, including our patients/service users. If you are joining us from another NHS organisation, we can usually accept training completed with your current/previous employer to minimise the amount of time you spend repeating mandatory training during your induction.
Supervision and support
We recognise that support and supervision are key elements of a great work experience. All of our clinical staff have supervision and our team of Professional Nurse Advocates use restorative supervision to support you.
Thrive
We recognise the additional challenges that staff from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic backgrounds face in their careers, and offer a tailored set of career development offers specifically as part of our ‘Thrive’ programme.
Time to Learn
HCT is committed to supporting all staff to have time to learn and offer half a day every three months for each member of staff, to spend on learning which is not mandatory or essential to their role.
Training system and training spaces
The Trust uses a bespoke training system called My Learning Zone which is accessible from a computer and/or a smart phone to book training, complete e-learning and track mandatory training. My Learning Zone has been designed for the Trust to make it as easy as possible for staff to access what they need. It also includes supervision and appraisal records, all in one place.
Our main training space is at Howard Court in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire. We also regularly use Robertson House in Stevenage, Hertfordshire particularly for our bigger events.
University of Hertfordshire
Our main partner for specialist training and education modules is the University of Hertfordshire, this includes non-medical prescribing, specialist practice programmes and apprenticeship programmes for nursing and allied health professions.
