Dr Liz Clark and Professor Jan Draper from the Open University illustrate d how you can liberate talent in your organisation through aligning learning and development with workforce planning.

Speakers:

• Dr Liz Clark, senior lecturer, Faculty of Health and Social Care, Open University
• Professor Jan Draper, head of nursing, Faculty of Health and Social Care, Open University

Dr Clark and Professor Draper gave an overview of:

• how healthcare and higher education are both currently under pressure
• case studies to illustrate 'grow your own'
• entry requirements and selection criteria for assistant practitioner roles
• support available for assistant practitioners
• how to prepare the workplace and teams for the assistant practitioners
• the Open University's learning and development framework
• the collaborative teaching model.

Group discussions

Delegates then broke off into groups to discuss, among other questions: their organisation's key learning and development priorities; how the Open University can help them meet their learning and development needs; and if there's a role for non-accredited learning.

Priorities from this were around:

• ensuring staff have basic customer service, compassion and people skills as well as core clinical skills
• issues about the lack of funding in the higher education and healthcare sector
• the return on investment for 'grow your own' workforce and needing to be clear about the outcomes you want to benefit the patients and service from this.