An award ceremony was held at the Lecture Theatre at Withybush Hospital, Haverfordwest, this week, to celebrate the qualifications achieved by the Occupational Health team.

Thirteen members of Occupational Health staff were congratulated on their successful completion of Pembrokeshire College’s Work-based Agored Level 3 qualification in Occupational Therapy.

Successful learners include: Davina Amos-Kerslake, Stuart Briggs, Dee Campbell, Miriam Cooper, Natasha Davies, Greg Dow, Shraon Haldane, Helen Howells, Tracy Jenkins, Amanda John, Claire Jones, Deboarah Jones, Christine Lewis, Christine Little, Bridget Meiring and Amanda Nash.

The qualification is the first to be delivered in three counties as a collaboration between the college and Hywel Dda Health Board. The qualification was specially developed by Pembrokeshire College to fit around the learning group’s working rota and their personal learning needs.

Learners spent up to nine months completing their Level 3 qualification with the help of medically registered assessors and occupational mentors.

Claire Simms, the Occupational Health lead for Pembrokeshire, congratulated the group and thanked the college for their hard work in getting the qualification off the ground and for the first time in Pembrokeshire.

She said: “We all really value the support that was provided, thank you very much indeed. It can be a struggle to complete a qualification and work at the same time, the standard was very high and this was no mean feat.”

The college worked closely with the external verifier from Agored, Victor Morgan, who quality assured the qualification, while registered health nurse and college assessor, Helen Pullman-Slater, delivered it to the learners.

Helen said: “Congratulations to the learners and to the hospital’s occupational therapists who supported the learners; it really helped people get through their qualification. Congratulations and thank you to everyone involved.”

It can be difficult to juggle a full-time job with studying for a qualification, but the group of learners from Withybush Hospital found the right balance with the right support.

Head of workforce skills at Pembrokeshire College, Wendy Weber, said: “Well done to everyone on their hard work and achievements. We’ve really enjoyed collaborating with Hywel Dda Health Board to develop this qualification for them and look forward to developing more programmes in the future.”

Interested in learning while you work? Visit pembs.ac.uk/courses to see what you could achieve.