Empowering future NHS digital professionals.

Delivered in partnership with Purple Beard Training, and supported by Leicester City Council and the Department for Education, the FirstLight Programme opens meaningful pathways into digital health — creating social value through opportunity, inclusion, and skills that make a difference.

FirstLight was developed in collaboration with University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust (UHL) to address one of the NHS’s most persistent challenges: building sustainable digital capability for modern Electronic Patient Record (EPR) systems. As the first Trust to deploy the Nervecentre EPR, UHL required a new approach to developing the specialist skills needed to configure, support, and continuously improve a first-of-type system.

The result is a scalable, future-focused academy model that blends local recruitment, intensive bootcamp training, and a structured 18-month digital apprenticeship — creating a pipeline of EPR, configuration, testing, data, reporting, and integration specialists.

Learners train on real Electronic Patient Record systems, including Nervecentre Software, gaining hands-on experience and the digital, data, and communication skills that underpin safer, smarter healthcare. Apprentices rotate across core digital disciplines, are supported by St. Vincent’s subject-matter experts, and contribute directly to live NHS digital programmes from their earliest months.
With a strong focus on widening participation, FirstLight supports learners from diverse backgrounds — including those who are unemployed, early in their careers, or exploring a new direction. Early cohorts have demonstrated exceptional results:

• 40% women participants
• 50% previously unemployed
• 70% progressing into paid NHS apprenticeships
• 95% rating the programme “Outstanding”

By investing in people as well as technology, FirstLight strengthens local economies, grows confidence, and ensures digital transformation benefits both the NHS and the patients it serves.

The programme is now being explored across the East Midlands Acute Providers (EMAP) network — including Chesterfield Royal, Kettering General, Northampton General, Nottingham University Hospitals, Sherwood Forest, Derby and Burton, UHL, and United Lincolnshire — creating a regional, sustainable workforce model for the future.

FirstLight is more than a skills programme. It is a blueprint for how education, technology, and healthcare can come together to build a resilient, inclusive digital workforce for the NHS of tomorrow.