22 graduates get mental health jobs - graduate jobs

Several graduates who had previously enrolled on a one-year training program at a health trust have landed full-time jobs.

The move, designed to encourage more people to work in the field of mental health, has resulted in jobs being offered to 22 participants.

Barnet, Enfield and Haringey mental health trust is using student placements to try to stop young, skilled workers from leaving the service. Little opportunity exists for them because of inadequate budgets, according to NHS manager Alam Khan.

Many young people are generally turning their back on a career in healthcare, so the trust is trying to do its part in reversing the trend.

The pilot "fast-tracked" people into non-clinical NHS roles after targeting graduates with adverts throughout the UK.

Provision for poor mental health, with its vastly smaller budgets, is viewed by some as a poor relation of the NHS. Mental health still carries a certain level of stigma, with vacancies often left unfilled regardless of the general level of unemployment.

Mr Khan, who works with the Barnet, Enfield and Haringey trust, said 60 science and health graduates have just completed a one-year placement. Each week sees them work for three days at the trust and two days at Middlesex University completing their postgraduate diploma in mental health.

Of the 60 graduates, 22 were immediately offered full-time jobs, moving their pay scale from band three to band four at a stroke.