Staffordshire residents Ian Davies and Katie Berger have been awarded the ‘inspiring the biomedical workforce of the future’ award at this year’s Advancing Healthcare Awards (AHA).
Ian is a lecturer in biomedical science at Staffordshire University. Katie is a biomedical scientist at the University Hospitals of North Midlands. Both are members of the Institute of Biomedical Science (IBMS).
Ian and Katie received the IBMS-sponsored AHAward for ‘inspiring the biomedical workforce of the future’. They were awarded for their project, ‘Sustainable workforce planning through healthcare science degree apprenticeships’.
This curriculum established a part-time training route that would enable support staff to train as biomedical scientists, linked to the new degree apprenticeship standards.
Ian explained, “Utilising the Trust apprenticeship levy to fund the degree means that this now provided a financially sustainable way for Trusts to develop their own staff and offer an alternative route into degree education which enhances social mobility and widens participation in health education – it is targeted at staff who may have lacked the formal qualification or the opportunity to access university education in the traditional ‘post school’ format.
For us, the value is also the wider connection that this demonstrates between the university and NHS Trusts; by identifying employer need and then working with Trust colleagues to design a programme that is fit for purpose is exactly what our Connected University philosophy is all about.”
Katie said, “I am extremely honoured to have received this award on behalf of the University Hospitals of North Midlands in conjunction with Ian Davies from Staffordshire University. We have worked closely together to establish an innovative healthcare science degree to enable the best medical laboratory assistants and associate practitioners to study within their workplace to become biomedical scientists through an apprenticeship scheme.
To be acknowledged with this award for inspiring the biomedical workforce of the future, sponsored by the IBMS, is fantastic. I am absolutely over the moon, working with Staffordshire University was fantastic and now to be recognised formally is a wonderful feeling.
Personally, I am genuinely humbled. It was a fantastic day anyway and hearing the stories of other scientists and what amazing things are achieved by us every day was awe inspiring. We now have a new way to study for the next generation of scientists.”
IBMS President Alison Geddis said, “I am delighted Ian and Katie have won this award. I am thrilled they were recognised for such an important innovation, which will allow for many more promising biomedical science staff to enter the profession.”
