After spending a year working on placement at Croydon Health Services, Accounting student Minnu George now has her heart set on working in healthcare finance.
For the past 15 years or so, the University of Westminster has partnered with the National Health Service (NHS) to offer year-long finance placements to students in NHS Trusts across London. The scheme, which was recently expanded to include the areas of informatics and human resources (HR), has enabled hundreds of Westminster students to obtain a year’s paid work experience within the busy professional environments of the NHS, developing new skills and boosting their graduate employability
Organised by the University’s Work Placement Team, part of the Careers and Employability Service, these high-quality placements are restricted to around half a dozen universities. To support students who wish to apply for these highly competitive placements, the team offers a series of tailored workshops, 1:1 sessions and mock interviews.
New skills and professional responsibilities
In August 2019, having just completed the second year of her BSc (Hons) Accounting degree, Minnu George was selected to take up the role of Financial Management Trainee with Croydon Health Services NHS Trust. Her responsibilities included: dealing with data requests from departments; arranging meetings and taking notes; formatting, investigating and loading data into the costing system; and collating all departmental activity requests by following a timetable to request data in a timely manner.
Taking on these new professional responsibilities had a significant impact on Minnu, as it required her to develop an entirely new skill set, something she remains grateful for. Building on the existing knowledge and skills gained during her degree, she was able to apply these professionally, for example using Excel functions at a moderate to advanced level. She also negotiated costing software, ran SQL queries and used various other industry tools essential in managing the large volume of data handled by the department. To help broaden her understanding of the NHS, Minnu was given opportunities to attend courses external to the organisation, such as Year-End Financial Reporting, Accounting Standards for the NHS and Effective Communication of Financial Information.
A valued, mutually beneficial contribution
Despite undertaking her placement year during the Covid-19 pandemic, Minnu was able to embrace the benefits of flexible working and praised her employer’s communication during such difficult and changing times. She also cited the diversity and inclusivity of the Trust as one of the most positive elements of her experience.
The experience has been equally positive for her employer. During her placement and with her assistance, the Costing Department was able to reduce the data processing time from 20 days to 15 days. Minnu also designed a Gantt chart, making the costing process more transparent and accessible for those unfamiliar with the work of the Department. Her line manager, Lillian Auma, feels Minnu has made an excellent contribution to the Department. “Minnu has great analytical skills and is quick to find ways of checking for variances in data.” she said. “This has been an invaluable skill required for the Department because we deal with large volume of complex patient level information. She is extremely committed to her work and will go out of her way to complete tasks on time and of high quality. She has gone beyond what is required.”
Placement led to desire to work in healthcare finance
“Working at Croydon Health Services is indeed a life-changing experience for me. It not only has challenged me at all levels, but also encouraged me to build my skill sets. I got to be a part of and witness the biggest costing transformation NHS has ever had and it taught me how fast things are changing in Finance and the importance of gaining new skills. I have acquired numerous data and Excel skills and also with remote working, I got to explore the new digital accountant scenario as well. This placement opportunity has made me really want to work in Healthcare finance and that is what I believe is the biggest achievement.’”
Minnu George
Accounting BSc student, University of Westminster
“Having a placement student in my Department not only provided the Department with the resources to complete tasks, but also to gain insights into young minds that often have a different outlook to life and fresh views when it comes to perfuming tasks. Minnu was a great asset to the costing team and provided me with the opportunity to improve on my training skills. She was proactive in following up on queries and also not afraid to ask questions or challenge where she saw room for improvements. Because of her level of intelligence, training was easier as she grasped complex concepts quickly.”
Lillian Auma
Head of Costing and Service Line Reporting (SLR), Croydon Health Services NHS Trust
Find out how a placement could benefit your business
The University of Westminster is home to over 20,000 students from 155 nations – one of the most diverse, multicultural student bodies in the world, able to bring individual skills and talents to your business. The University works in partnership with a range of organisations, including large corporates, SMEs, charities and schools, to offer a sandwich/placement year in industry between Years 2 and 3 that is assessed as part of the course. Students like Minnu can add value to your organisation and benefit from gaining commercial awareness and experience of real-life working practices in specific industries.
If you would like to find out more about offering a placement or internship to our students, please contact the Careers and Employability Service by emailing [email protected].