Building a stronger NHS workforce: key takeaways from Onefile’s online workshop

When we look at the occupations in our National Health Service we tend to think of patient-facing clinical roles such as doctor, nurse, paramedic, healthcare assistant, physiotherapist, pharmacist and radiographer.

In fact, the NHS offers some 350 different careers, encompassing roles in areas as diverse as estate management, office administration, site maintenance, horticulture, laundry and catering.

Given the huge range and scope of occupations available within the NHS – and its position as the UK's largest contributor to the apprenticeship levy – it’s clear our hospital trusts have specific learner management requirements.

As the leading provider in this EdTech space, Onefile is pleased and proud that so many NHS Trusts look to us to manage the differing training needs of their apprentices, T level students and other learners.

And we were especially happy to welcome Lucy Hunte, National Programme Manager for Apprenticeships at NHS England to our first online workshop for NHS leaders – an event so well received it will now take place every six months. Workshop attendees included managers from Trusts we’ve worked with for years, as well as NHS representatives who were new to Onefile but keen to find out more.

Held as part of National Apprenticeship Week 2026, our event also included a fun, illuminating case study from Michelle Ward, Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust’s Programme Lead for Apprenticeships.

Michelle’s engaging talk and video presentation illustrated just how transformative moving to a paper-free system has been for her Trust. Before switching to Onefile’s Eportfolio, it had relied on paper-based assessments, which had often proved difficult to manage.

Michelle said: “When we first started doing NVQs, we had paper everywhere. Our hospitals are on different sites so assessors visiting learners at work spent a lot of time on the road. They were often stuck in queuing traffic and struggled to find a parking space once they’d arrived on site. Then we had times when candidates were off sick or had forgotten to bring in their work, which led to missing paperwork and late completions. I’ve heard every excuse going. It was so frustrating.”

Switching to Onefile’s Eportfolio

Faced with a growing caseload of staff wanting to take qualifications, Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust considered various ways of addressing the inefficiencies in its assessment processes.

Recruiting more staff to Michelle’s team was deemed too costly and staff were too busy to deal with work-based assessments, so it was decided instead to go digital.

And, after comparing edtech software providers, the Trust agreed Onefile’s Eportfolio was the right fit. However, introducing the system across all sites did meet with some initial resistance.

Michelle said: “There were barriers to overcome. We explained to staff that going digital would make us more time efficient and that eradicating paper waste would make us greener. Some people, though, questioned how we’d know that work submitted online was genuine and how it would be signed off. Others told us they ‘didn’t do computers’ and had never used one.”

To help staff members improve their IT skills, the Trust set up a training classroom and loaned tablets to staff. It ran, and still runs, training sessions and made adjustments to meet individual needs, such as changing fonts and background colour for dyslexic learners.

Michelle added: “We’ve become so much more agile since switching to the Eportfolio. There are no more files, no more queuing in traffic, no more excuses for missing work. Because Onefile is internet-based, learners can be assessed anytime, anyplace, anywhere. Fewer assessor visits mean more time spent caring for patients.”

Since implementing the Eportfolio, the Trust has seen learners complete their courses in record time – and Michelle’s team stay calm and efficient, despite the learner caseload doubling in size. It also continues to modify its Eportfolio to allow for changes such as new qualifications and work sites.

Speaking from a national perspective, Lucy said Michelle’s experiences would resonate with many NHS managers. She talked about the training challenges facing the health sector including staff shortages, regulatory and funding complexities and finding placements for learners who now include those doing T levels as well as apprentices, degree apprentices, undergraduates and work experience students.

Lucy added that demand for nursing degree apprenticeships remained extremely high but there was still work to be done externally to promote their value to careers teachers, parents and guardians.

To learn how Onefile can support your NHS Trust to streamline its workflows, protect funding and help learners stay on course, book a discovery call today.