Moving from marketing to pharmacy isn’t an obvious career path, but one Kemi Mafo has made happen within just six months thanks to a new training academy at ESNEFT.
Kemi was working as an online customer service agent at a marketing company in Colchester, but was interested in a complete career change.
When she saw an advert for East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust’s (ESNEFT) Community Diagnostics Training Academy, she decided to apply in the hope of working in healthcare.
Kemi Mafo
Kemi said: “I wanted to join the academy because I thought it would be a great opportunity for me to get a general overview of what working in the NHS entails while working towards getting a role in technical services at the Pharmacy department.”
The academy offers people the opportunity of training and a guaranteed job interview within ESNEFT, predominantly within the areas of care dealing with diagnosing conditions, such as heart monitoring in cardiorespiratory, bowel screening and x-rays within medical imaging or blood samples in phlebotomy.
There are also opportunities in non-clinical areas such as clerical work too with part of the training involving rotational placements across the Trust’s hospitals.
Kemi applied last summer and was successful in securing a place.
She added: “I started off my training by attending a one-week masterclass then I had to do online e-learning before my placements at Colchester Hospital and Clacton Hospital for about five weeks.
“I was in the pathology and phlebotomy department to observe how bloods were taken from patients as well as participating in a laboratory tour to see how the pathology laboratory functions.”
Kemi also had placements in medical imaging and the cardiorespiratory department observing echo cardiograms and lung function tests.
Very early into the training, she applied for a role as a senior pharmacy assistant and was successful, starting the role in October last year. She’s already moved up to the position of pharmacy quality control officer at the beginning of the year.
She added: “I’m a happier person now and fulfilled because I’m able to actively contribute to a collective aim at work.
“I would say to anyone who has a passion to work and help people improve or maintain their health to try and get into the academy as you get supported all the way.”
Pride Mukungurutse, Pathways to Diagnostics practice placement manager
Pride Mukungurutse, Pathways to Diagnostics practice placement manager, has helped Kemi throughout her journey on the training academy.
She said: “Kemi has worked so hard and used every opportunity available through the training academy. She is a great example of how you can retrain and develop your career in the NHS.”
The programme was funded through the government and is being run in partnership with Colchester Institute.
Gary Horne, deputy chief executive at Colchester Institute, said: “We were delighted to partner with ESNEFT to deliver this highly successful training and recruitment programme to help increase the Trust’s capacity to deliver more local diagnostic services. We are now working together on follow-on programmes to support recruitment to other local health services”
The academy has now launched across the Ipswich area too.
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