An innovative partnership of local government and NHS trusts aims to recruit
people who are unaware of the variety of jobs that the public sector offers.
The Gateshead Partnership is made up of the Gateshead Council, Gateshead NHS
Trust and Gateshead Primary Care Trust, which together employ more than 15,000
people in more than 1,200 jobs.
The scheme aims to promote awareness and the public sector’s profile, by
demonstrating the wide spectrum of jobs that the three different employers
offer.
Organisers of the partnership hope that young people in particular, who
don’t rate the public sector as ‘particularly sexy’, will be drawn to jobs such
as web design, architecture and patient liaison.
To stimulate a sense of serving the community, billboard advertising and a
shared internet portal with local NHS trusts show actual Gateshead public
sector employees, rather than actors or models.
Jeff Dean, head of personnel services at Gateshead council, said that
sharing a recruitment campaign with the local NHS trusts would ‘mop up a lot
more people numerically’ as it could demonstrate a wider choice of professions.
"Our organisations have a lot of shared values, but the jobs we offer
are not the same, so we are not in competition," he said. "Working
together shows this is all about Gateshead and the community."
Dean added that the project had prompted greater interaction between the
organisations, including training projects, which would not be possible to
operate individually due to a lack of participants.
The project is running until March, when it will culminate in a job fair
combining the three employers.
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By Michael Millar
