The recent 2019 UK Employee Experience Awards in London saw one of the country’s most innovative training schemes for medical writers celebrated in a Gold category victory.
Ashfield Healthcare Communications took home the top award in the Employee Engagement – Learning & Development (programme) category, which team members have described as an “incredible achievement”.
Their allegro programme is a 12-month, fast-track training initiative for life sciences graduates, providing a foundation for a long-term career in medical writing. Comprising an eight-week training phase and two five-month agency rotations, at the end of the programme employees join one of Ashfield’s agency teams in the UK as a medical writer.
Ashfield’s Programme Director, Neil Marmont, said: “This is an incredible achievement and shines a spotlight on our bespoke accelerated learning programme for aspiring medical writers. As well as the obvious benefits of allegro in meeting the needs of our business from a resource perspective, the influx of talented individuals into the organisation is encouraging internal networking and the growth of really supportive, dynamic teams, which is impacting positively on the quality of the work we are delivering to our clients.”
At the awards, Ashfield’s team (Neil Marmont, Andrew Davidson, Sarah Jackson, Katie Buxton, and Danny Hawker) delivered a 15-minute presentation, covering the objectives, design, planning, implementation and business impact of the allegro programme, which has been running since January 2018. The presentation was followed by a question and answer session with the judges.
“The judges were particularly impressed with the individual stories of allegro alumni Katie and Danny, and with the collaborative learning environment that allegro has created,” Neil added.
“They were also impressed with the scale of the programme and opportunities it provides for current staff to be involved in training, mentoring, line management and coaching.”