PAULINE YARKER - Training and Development award For Pauline Yarker, it was her work co-ordinating a lifelong training programme for prospective health service workers which earned her the award.

Pauline is vocational training manager for South Tees Hospitals NHS Trust and the path to her award began in 2001, when weaknesses were highlighted in the way the organisation trained people for jobs in the service.

The examination by the Adult Learning Inspectorate rated the vocational learning element of the trust as grade 5, which equates to 'unsatisfactory'.

Pauline was given the task of improving the rating to such an extent that the trust is now rated grade 2, a dramatic improvement in a short time.

She and her team work to develop the skills of people of all ages, but particularly young people, so that they can develop careers within the NHS, which is experiencing difficulty attracting new recruits.

Through schemes such as the NVQ and Modern Apprenticeships, the trust has been able to train people in jobs such as office clerks, support secretarial and hospital porters.

In addition, it has helped people develop their nursing skills with the result that a number have progressed to attain full qualification and returned to work for the trust.

People who have gone through the programme have worked at the James Cook University Hospital, on Teesside, and the Friarage Hospital, in Northallerton, as well as with the local Primary Care Trust and other health providers in the area. Seventy-three per cent of them have secured jobs with South Tees Hospitals NHS Trust.

Improving the jobs position in the area is important for Pauline, who said: "We take on a lot of unemployed people and try to take people from deprived areas."

There is an urgency to what she and her team do because a large proportion of the trust's workforce is over 56, which means they will soon be retiring.

By 2010, said Pauline, the trust would need to recruit half of its new staff from school leavers to redress the imbalance, which was why, although lifelong learning remained important, appealing to young people was seen as crucial.

"What we are doing," said Pauline, "Is trying to help them realise that there are careers in the health service. Many of them had not considered that before."

She is delighted to have won the award. "It was like the Oscars," she said, "I am still in shock."