Learn with us

We are passionate about learning, development and progression opportunities for all our staff. We are also committed to the research and development of our services.

We will give you access to professional development and extensive learning opportunities and support you on your work-based learning journey. Together we will work to improve peoples’ lives, reduce stigma around mental health and educate our communities so they know how to stay safe and well.

Apprenticeships

An apprenticeship is simply formal on-the-job learning. This means that you get essential hands-on work experience while also earning a real salary – and to top it all off you get to take home a qualification as well.

Apprenticeships are a great way to:

  • Start a career
  • Gain job-specific skills
  • Get a qualification
  • Earn money while you learn

We now offer a wider range of apprenticeship opportunities and have developed plans to increase both clinical and non-clinical apprenticeships in line with our workforce skill requirements.

We presently offer apprenticeships from level 2 to level 7 available to all of our employees who meet the minimum standards required of the apprenticeship programme.

Hear what some of our apprentices say about their experiences as part of National Apprenticeship Week.

Oxleas NHS Apprenticeships.pdf [pdf] 793KB

This video explains more about apprenticeships in the NHS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5KyXKre9So

Enterprise_Act_2022_-_Oxleas_NHS_Foundation_Trust_v2.pdf [pdf] 290KB

Medical education

Doctors are the fifth largest staff group at Oxleas NHS, making up 5% of our workforce.

We have doctors working in psychiatry, community paediatrics, general practice, contraception and sexual health specialities and within healthcare in secure environments such as prisons.

Our Medical Staffing team is responsible for the training, assessment and education of our medical workforce.

Nursing education

We provide development opportunities that offer you both personal and professional growth.

Nursing apprenticeships enable staff to learn on the job to gain a recognised qualification.

They allow staff opportunities to obtain the necessary knowledge and skills through their work-base, placements, university and self-directed study, whilst continuing to earn a salary.

Our Nursing Associate Apprenticeships offer a two-year, full-time programme to develop to an NMC registered Band 4 Nursing Associate Role with a level 5 foundation degree. The role is generic and covers all four fields of nursing – adult, child, mental health and learning disabilities. The role provides a progression route into graduate-level nursing.

Our Nursing Degree Apprenticeships offer a four-year full-time programme to develop to an NMC registered Band 5 Registered Nurse role with a Level 6 BSc. This role is field-specific in adult, child, mental health or learning disabilities.

Our Healthcare Support Workers Apprenticeships at Level 2 and Level 3 are a nationally recognised Diploma in Healthcare which encompasses the care certificate. Apprentices on Level 2 and Level 3 have access to Maths and English Functional Skills qualifications.

To find out more about any of these opportunities, please email: oxl-tr.nursingapprenticeships@nhs.net

Our Nursing Development Programme is a collaborative approach to leading change and improving career development pathways, nurse recruitment and retention.

We are working as part of the South London Mental Health and Community Partnership, with partner trusts South West London and St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust (SWLSTG) and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, to create opportunities for cross organisation working, learning and development for clinical staff.

You can find out more in this short film:

Preceptorships

We run two preceptorship schemes – one in nursing and one for Allied Health Professionals (AHPs).

Preceptorship is the period of transition for newly registered professionals, or those who have returned to practice, which aims to promote the development of more able and confident practitioners, and therefore better patient care.

Our preceptorship to support newly registered nurses runs three times a year and consists of six study days.

Our Allied Health Professionals Preceptorship Programme started as a pan-London project with eight other trusts, and has now expanded to become a national resource which supports newly-qualified AHP professionals in their first year of clinical practice.

To find out more about the AHP Preceptorship Programme, please email: oxl-tr.ahp.preceptorship@nhs.net

Research and development

What is research?

Research attempts to find out something that we don’t already know and is a core service in the NHS, so building a research-active trust and engaging with service users, carers and staff is a priority for us.

Our research team manages national research studies for the  National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and its research  Portfolio, and also our locally-led studies. Our primary aim is to promote an organisational environment that is conducive to high quality research activities across all our services.

We are focusing on:

  • Building the will by increasing the capability and capacity to deliver more research studies
  • Increasing equity of access to research for the population we serve including underserved communities such as Forensic and Offender Healthcare
  • Widening our scope by diversifying and increasing our research offer to our service users, carers and staff.

For more information on the studies we host, please contact our research team at oxl-tr.oxleas-research@nhs.net.

Work experience

We can offer two forms of work experience – medical and allied health professionals (AHPs) – which are aimed at students looking to gain entry to university in the following year.

In the first instance, to find out more about available opportunities, please email either:

We also recognise that much of what we do is of interest to 14 to 19-year-olds who are looking for a career in the NHS. Due to the limited opportunities we can currently offer, we run virtual work experience/work-related learning weeks. Each of these is open to around 300 young people and includes live webinars and the chance for students to interact with our staff, whilst learning and getting insightful information around careers. They last for a week and cover both clinical and non-clinical roles.

We work in partnership with Springpod to deliver these. You can find out more on their website: https://www.springpod.com/

we’re kind we’re fair we listen we care

We are kind, we are fair, we listen