Hooray for Hollywood .. and the NHS
As a university, our mission is to educate and inspire people, and to discover new knowledge.
While the classic image of a university student is of undergraduates and postgraduates studying for a degree – and Reading still has plenty of those – it’s increasingly important that learning becomes a part of everyone’s lives.
That means having the opportunity to refresh your skills, or to have opportunities to train for new careers, at any age.
This week, two new projects have launched to support people in Reading and Wokingham to update their skills, supporting their own careers and the needs of our local community and economy.
On Monday, I was delighted to be at the opening of the new clinical simulation training suite at the University’s Whiteknights campus. The project is part of our partnership with the Royal Berkshire NHS Trust and with funding from the Office for Students.
It’s a recreation of a four-bed hospital ward, including equipment and video link facilities, as well as consultation spaces.
It will provide University students studying our pharmacy
and healthcare-related courses, including our increasingly popular Physician Associate programme, with the opportunity to better prepare for clinical placements by practising within a safe environment.
Many of our students go on to stay in the local area after they graduate, so this will help prepare them for serving the local community later in their career.
For NHS employees, and healthcare colleagues within the community, the training suite will support further skills development – supporting wider efforts to offer the best possible care and services to local people.
Then on Tuesday, at one of the TV and film sound stages within the new Shinfield Studios, the University and its partners launched a new organisation, Screen Berkshire.
This exciting project will help develop the skills of new and existing film and TV talent in our area.
Screen Berkshire was formed following investment from the British Film Institute (BFI). The partnership is led by Sloughbased social enterprise Resource Productions CIC, with support from the University, Shinfield Studios