Successful T Level placement leads to part-time job for Chichester College student

A Chichester College student has secured a job with the NHS after impressing bosses during an industry placement.

T Level biology student Thomas Scott-Ragless completed his T Level industry placement within the Pathology Department at St Richards Hospital.

The second-year student took part in the placement as a part of his course.

Thomas said: “I did a two-month industry placement at the NHS. I did a couple of tasters at first, before deciding to work in the biochemistry lab.

“This was a great experience and I managed to learn a lot in the workplace and found my role suitable and in the placement.

“There was a lot of working with a team. You have to communicate properly, especially at a certain time when you go into a group and talk about what happened the day before, or what’s going to happen today and what might happen in the future.

“I also learnt a lot about what might happen in a lab and any errors I might have to fix, and anything about troubleshooting.”

Thomas has since taken on paid work within the bank staff at St Richards Hospital, where he continues to support the team and develop his skills, knowledge and experience.

He added: “I would 100% recommend T Levels. It’s again similar to A-levels in terms of content but more practical. You get to work with proper equipment and work and learn from experienced professionals in a laboratory.

“After college, I want to go to university to deepen my understanding of science and hopefully with the experience I’ve gained in the laboratory and my work placement, I should go further than people who might have not had the opportunity to do a T Level.”

Classmate Hadyn Potter also took a placement within the Biometric Department with the NHS.

Hadyn said: “My industry placement was in a microbiology lab. Here, I had to test different illnesses from fluids of people and I was mainly trying to use machinery to find out different things in urine.”