Tejal's NHS career takes off

Tejal Babu from Stratford in east London was looking for a new challenge last year (2021) when she spotted an online advert for jobs in the new COVID-19 vaccination programme in Kent and Medway. Now she’s permanently employed by Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust (KCHFT) and loving her new role.

Tejal said: “I was working in human resources for a large supermarket but I was looking for something a bit different. I saw an advert online asking for people to apply for administration roles in the vaccination programme and thought it would be a good way to help with the global pandemic and maybe progress my career at the same time.”

Tejal applied for the job and was offered a role working in the large vaccination centres in Kent straight away.

“My job was to help people check in at the door, get their details entered on the system and also get their feedback at the end. The centres were well organised and the atmosphere was fantastic, even though it was quite a scary time. Everyone was so kind and welcoming and we really did all pull together as one team.

“As the vaccination centres started to wind down I decided to apply for a permanent role with KCHFT as a human resources administrator. Thanks to my experience on the vaccine programme and my previous work experience I got the job. I’m really happy that something I applied to do that was urgently needed has now developed into a career with the NHS.”