IN Colleges Week 2025 Wiltshire College & University Centre is highlighting the further education sector’s role in building an NHS fit for the future by showcasing the Healthcare Zone at its Salisbury campus.

The college has worked with Salisbury District Hospital and Coventry University to create a cutting edge teaching centre for young people who want a career in the medical profession or the care sector, as well as those already working there.

It has been designed to look and feel like a hospital, complete with an ambulance bay and real ambulance, reception area, observation room, seven-bed ward and a care home-style en-suite bedroom.

“We have worked with the hospital to make sure everything is the same as you’d find there, even down to the signage and the decor in the corridors,” said Louise Wood, the college’s Healthcare Development and Relationship Lead.

“We wanted an area where you could step through the door and it would feel like a ward instantly, so the beds, all the furniture and the equipment are the same. We want the students to feel very comfortable with the environment, which is going to be exactly the same when they step into their work-based placements and eventually a full-time post.”

The introduction of T Level qualifications in health inspired the development of the zone, which will aim to meet the needs of the health and care sector. The college is working with sector partners including Wiltshire Council, the Royal United Hospital in Bath and Salisbury District Hospital to ensure its training at Salisbury, Trowbridge and Chippenham meets their needs.

“We know the NHS and the care sector are under immense pressure so if we can provide students that are ready and confident, then that’s a massive help,” said Mrs Wood.

The set up is designed to mimic the healthcare ‘journey’ of a patient – from initial care in an ambulance or arriving in a waiting area through to triage, treatment on a ward and discharge into domiciliary care.

The fully equipped ambulance, complete with working ramp, will teach critical care such as CPR. “We believe we’ll be able to use it to do some basic paramedic training as well,” said Mrs Wood. “We’re one of the only colleges around that has something like it,” she said.

The observation room has two authentic hospital beds where students learn to understand the symptoms of patients, while being observed by lecturers and classmates through a glass wall.

Their ‘patients’ can either be staff or one of three hi-tech life-sized mannequins that can breathe, cough and talk. “They are incredibly realistic and we can either use pre-programmed sequences where they will describe symptoms such as a chest pain or we can talk through them ourselves using an iPad,” said Mrs Wood.

The mannequins can be adapted to replicate any age or race, can be given injections or be fitted with a canula and be given wounds or burns.

“It will never take away from what it’s like to be with a real-life person but hopefully because our students will be familiar with the skills they need, they can think about the personal interactions a bit more,” said Mrs Wood.

The zone is already being used by the college’s first cohort of T Level Adult Nursing students, who will also have more than 300 hours of community and hospital placements. Level Two and Three Health and Social Care students are also benefitting from the zone’s realism.

Having recently launched the Nursing Associate Foundation Degree, there are also plans to develop degree level health apprenticeships in the near future. There will also be flexible courses for employers to train their staff in health topics including first aid, CPR and allergic reactions.

“At the moment the students we have are predominantly coming to us after their GCSEs and are interested in a career in healthcare but we are also thinking about staff already in a role who want to learn new skills or would like to further their career,” said Mrs Wood. “And because of the investment we’ve made they don’t have to travel out of the county to do it.

“We need to show young people who want to go into the profession what is available and the pathways into those roles. There are so many different routes to a career in NHS or the care sector – the NHS alone has more than 350 different roles.

“We want to use these wonderful facilities to give our students some insight and a little inspiration as well a broad education so they can move on and focus on the role that interests them.”