Published 24 February 2023
Teams at East Kent Hospitals have introduced a ‘Golden Ticket’ scheme to help recruit the top students on placements with the Trust.
The innovative project allows senior staff in the adult therapies team to offer exceptional student physiotherapists, speech and language therapists and occupational therapists a ‘golden ticket’, which means they can bypass the usual application process for a job.
Leaders hope it will help keep the best students within the Trust by allowing them to be offered a job without needing to be shortlisted and pass an interview.
Claire Casarotto, head of education and workforce for therapies, said: “We welcome many final year students to the Trust for clinical placements from a variety of universities, and until now we have had to encourage them to apply for permanent roles with us and then hope that we don’t lose them to our competitors.
“Our golden ticket scheme allows our experienced clinicians to identify the most exceptional students and then proactively approach them to offer them a role with us based on our experience of working with them as a student.
“It’s a fun and quirky approach but with a very serious message – our patients deserve the best and this will help us recruit some really top-quality therapists to support their care.”
Under the scheme, an experienced clinical educator within the therapies team, or other senior member of staff, would identify the most promising students and offer them a golden ticket.
They would be given information about the Trust’s employment opportunities and training and, if they are interested in a role, would be given time to complete an application form.
The application would be logged against an existing vacancy and the student would then be formally offered the role without the need for an interview.
Claire said: “Like all Trusts, we have several vacancies in the therapies team and we hope this scheme will allow us to recruit people who share our values and our passion for patient care.
“It could help motivate students to perform at their best during their placements, which will also have benefits for our patients.
“And although we can’t offer a tour of Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory to our golden ticket winners, we will give them a treat along with the ticket to help sweeten the deal even more!”
