Building skills, confidence and careers: AHP students on placement at HEIW
Health Education and Improvement Wales (HEIW) was thrilled to welcome two Allied Health Profession (AHP) students to Ty Dysgu, HEIW’s headquarters, earlier this year.
Carys and Hannah are pre-registration physio students, from the University of South Wales who completed a four-week placement with HEIW to gain experience in the strategic side of the NHS.
HEIW supports practice-based learning across Wales, giving learners hands-on experience to develop essential skills, deliver high-quality care and grow professionally through real-world practice and reflection. Facilitating placements within HEIW offers students the opportunity to build key professional and transferable skills interprofessionally.
Promoting mental health careers
Across NHS Wales, there is a consistently high number of unfilled vacancies for AHPs across mental health services. To help address this, Carys and Hannah were tasked with creating career profiles for HEIW’s Careersville platform, a virtual village showcasing opportunities in health and social care. These profiles aim to highlight the diverse range of AHP roles in mental health and inspire future professionals.
This work, aligned with the Strategic Mental Health Workforce Plan gave the students an invaluable opportunity to develop leadership and project management skills, while contributing to workforce development in Wales.
To understand what attracts people to AHP roles in mental health, Carys and Hannah interviewed experienced professionals from across Wales. Interviewees shared what first sparked their interest, the challenges they face and the rewards of working in mental health and dementia care. These rich conversations allowed the students to capture authentic career journeys and translate them into engaging profiles for Careersville, bringing a fresh perspective on what resonates with prospective AHPs.
Developing skills and confidence
The students excelled in their placement and both were complementary on how useful and impactful it was. Hannah commented:
“Prior to starting this placement, I never had the opportunity to manage a project from start to finish. During my time at HEIW, I was able to create a project plan and coordinate timelines to make sure things stayed on track. This has taught me how to stay organised, prioritise tasks and adapt when things don't quite go as expected. I've also developed my project evaluation skills, learning how to measure the impact of my project and justify decisions based on outcomes and feedback. These are skills I know will be invaluable in my future career.”
“One of the most meaningful parts of this placement was having the opportunity to represent student perspectives and contribute to decisions that actually impact us. Being given that platform to speak up and share honest feedback was incredibly empowering, I was involved in discussions where student voices genuinely shape the direction of projects and influence how services could be improved. This experience has really strengthened my confidence as a future healthcare professional. I now understand the value of using my voice, not just for myself, but on behalf of patients, colleagues or future students and to help drive positive change in the system."
Diversifying practice-based learning
As part of its commitment to delivering high‑quality education and training, HEIW’s AHP Practice Education Team is working with partners to develop innovative placements through Welsh Government’s NEST/NYTH framework, NHS Performance and Improvement and Social Care Wales. Recent collaborations have included projects with the Dementia Wellbeing Connectors at Age Cymru Dyfed and the Rainbow Foundation in Wrexham, giving students unique opportunities to gain experience in diverse care settings.
HEIW continues to work with health and care organisations to increase quality and sustainable mental health practice-based learning for allied health professionals, with a focus on interprofessional education.
These opportunities showcase creative approaches to practice‑based learning, enabling students to develop transferable skills that can be applied across all care settings. For further information on placement learning please contact HEIW’s Practice Education Team.