Skills Passport for Health boosted by Government funding award and RCN support

The Skills Passport for Health project has been boosted by the award of £400,000 from the new Employer Investment Fund (EIF) run by the UK Commission for Employment and Skills.

The Skills Passport is a UK and health sector wide record of an individual's career history, current skills and training. It can increase the speed at which staff could begin in a new post and offers substantial financial savings by reducing unnecessary training duplication.

The EIF award will cover development such as the underlying skills frameworks, initially for statutory and mandatory training but also for clinical skills, as well as technical aspects of the project.

The project was one of several which were awarded funding. Skills minister John Hayes said: "These projects are exactly the type of partnership working needed between Sector Skills Councils and their sector employers, to bring new investment in skills and tackle future skills gaps."

The project has already been successfully piloted, with the first full implementation in the North West of England due by the end of March 2012. There will be initial releases within the region towards the end of this year and the beginning of next. Implementation in other areas of the UK will follow during 2012 and 2013.

In April the RCN congress signalled overwhelming support for the Skills Passport when it voted with an 85% majority to lobby for the Passport to be implemented across the NHS and other sectors where nurses are employed.