Northumbrian healthcare assistant (HCA) Sharon Proud has won the personal development award at her Trust’s annual Building a Caring Future Staff Awards.

As soon as she started her first healthcare job as a care assistant in a residential home, Sharon seized the opportunity to learn and completed the NVQ Level 2 and 3 in Health and Social Care.

And after moving on to Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust 14 years ago, Sharon achieved her Level 3 Diploma in Health and completed the Foundation degree in NHS Service Improvement – all while holding down a full-time job and raising two children with her husband.

Recognising that she needed to update her English and maths qualifications to progress to studying at Teesside University, Sharon enrolled on functional skills English and maths courses through Bridges to Learning, UNISON’s partnership with the Open University (OU) and the Workers’ Educational Association (WEA).

Sharon said:

My long term goal is to take the Assistant Practitioner course at Teesside University but if the Trust are not employing these, then I would like to do the nursing secondment at Northumbria University

“At present there is no funding for this so I will continue with my job until one of my dream posts arises.”

This story first appeared in the Spring 2019 edition of The Learning Rep.