City Health Care Partnership signs up to Humber Skills Pledge
17 April, 2013
City Health Care Partnership CIC (CHCP) has signed up to the Humber Skills Pledge as part of the Humber Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP). The Pledge offers six ways in which businesses can invest in skills and training, including offering apprenticeships and employing local graduates. CHCP’s chief executive Andrew Burnell is enthusiastic about the benefits this can bring for local people and businesses.
“As a social enterprise, CHCP invests its surplus into the community, staff or into service developments,” he said. “This means that as a social enterprise we benefit the whole community as well as the people who use our services. It also means that we can invest in our staff, providing opportunities for local people in terms of employment and training. The Humber Skills Pledge will help us to access information and provide guidance and advice to grow this vital area of our business.”
One person who has already benefited from this investment in people is graduate recruit Richard Sykes, who graduated in July 2012 with a degree in marketing. “I started working for CHCP on a temporary and casual basis, doing general admin while I looked for more permanent work and when the position of Graduate Engagement and Communications Trainee came up I jumped at the chance. I was delighted to be offered the position and started in March 2013.
“My role is very varied, with involvement in a number of areas including developing a new company website and working with consultancy companies for rebranding and promotional campaigns for different services.
“I’m on a two-year contract and after that I’ll be very interested to see what options are available to me within CHCP. Either way the experience I will gain during my time as a graduate will be essential to me for carrying my career forwards.”
Karl Vincent started work as an apprentice in CHCP’s Learning and Development team in October 2012. “I went to Wyke College after leaving school and left with a BTec National Diploma in IT, but I didn’t really know what I wanted to do after that. I’m now working in the Learning Resources department at CHCP and I’m really enjoying it. The job is really varied; I could be doing anything from booking staff on to training courses to teaching IT skills to district nurses. The team has all been very welcoming.
“It’s a one-year placement and I’d love to stay on but we’ll have to see what happens. If I pass, I’ll come out with a Level Two Apprenticeship in Business Administration and it’d be great to stay on to take Level Three, but I’m just enjoying what I’m doing for the moment.”
Andrew Burnell said, “CHCP CIC firmly believes in the Humber Skills Pledge’s goals for boosting the local economy through employment and training and is already doing its bit to push this forward. Employing graduate trainees and apprenticeships are two ways we can help but we’ll be looking at the other Skill Pledges as well to see how we can continue with our investment in our staff and the local community through the Humber LEP.”
The Humber Local Enterprise Partnership is a business-led partnership that works closely with government to promote and develop the natural economic area surrounding the Humber estuary, and provide strategic leadership for economic growth. The LEP is made up of representatives from businesses; the University of Hull, and the four Local Authorities in the Humber area - the City Councils of: Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire. Go to www.humberlep.org for more information.
