Student praises experience working at 'friendly and welcoming' KHP

My name is Sara and I’m a fourth year MSci Chemistry student with a year’s Professional Placement, currently spending my placement year working at King’s Health Partners as a Project Support Officer in the Partnerships and Programmes team.

When applying to my university course at King’s College London I knew I wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to take a sandwich year. This allows you to take the time to improve your employability whilst at university and gives you a great introduction to the working world where you can try out a paid career option before committing.

Even if you end up taking a job that isn’t your intended career, you’ll get to learn so many transferable skills and increase in confidence both personally and professionally. It may even end up changing your career aspirations like it did mine! 

My original intention was to get a placement related to some form of practical lab work but in looking for placement positions to apply to, King’s Health Partners seemed like a much more interesting and impactful workplace than other placements I came across. Whilst working at King’s Health Partners was not an obvious choice for someone studying a chemistry degree, I was attracted to the opportunity to use the skills I’ve developed throughout my degree in a very different area.  

'Friendly and welcoming'

Starting my first full time job and introduction to the professional world at King’s Health Partners I found myself amongst friendly and welcoming colleagues who were brilliant at teaching me all I needed to know about my role, the organisation and the healthcare system. I’ve gotten to understand how vast the number of jobs are in the NHS, overcoming the misconception that to work in healthcare the only positions of value are clinical or administrative.

King’s Health Partners has taught me about all that goes into integrating the clinical, academic and operational parts of healthcare and an impactful healthcare system that spans primary, secondary and community care. In the past few months of my role, I found myself inspired being around so many people who are passionate about improving the lives of others by addressing population health and reducing health inequalities. 

'Understanding and open to tailoring the role'

King’s Health Partners is a dynamic organisation and the day-to-day role itself varies largely depending on what projects are currently being worked on. In my experience management are very understanding and are open to tailoring the role to your professional development goals. I’ve been given the opportunity to attend relevant events and conferences within work time.

For my own professional development, I wanted to learn data analysis skills and not only was I given the time and resources to do so (they paid for online learning courses), I was also offered the opportunity to cement my learning and gain some leadership skills by sharing my knowledge with others in a peer learning group. I’ve had so much support from my colleagues and manager to follow through on this and was even assigned a mentor to help me upskill where needed and think about further steps to progression.

If you are interested in a role where you make a difference to the delivery of our healthcare services, I would really recommend applying. New ideas and fresh perspective are always welcomed, and I think people here see that as a real strength of graduates and new hires.

Melissa Ingleton, Placements Coordinator at King’s College London Faculty of Natural, Mathematical and Engineering Sciences said of the placement programme:

The Faculty of Natural, Mathematical and Engineering Sciences highly values our collaboration and partnership with King's Health Partners. In particular, through the Year in Industry opportunity that King’s Health Partners offers, our undergraduate students are able to develop highly coveted transferable skills, through a wide variety of projects aiding them in their personal as well as professional development.

The students’ ability to utilise what they have learnt during their studies, through lectures, labs and workshops to translate into real life projects is invaluable and will support their own understanding of themselves and their future career goals.

King’s Health Partners is currently advertising for a paid industry placement starting in September 2022. To be eligible you must be studying a King’s College London course offering an industry placement year.

For further information please see the King's College London CareerConnect site.