An innovative project to get unemployed people into health-related jobs and careers across Birmingham and the West Midlands has won a major national award.

The Learning Hub, based on the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham (QEHB) site, works with unemployed people, providing advice and courses to enable them to take up roles in the health sector.

It won The NHS Partnership Award of the Year at last night’s prestigious NHS Leadership Awards in London.

The Learning Hub – which received substantial funding through the European Regional Development Fund and regional development agency Advantage West Midlands – is run by University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust (UHB) but works on behalf of the whole healthcare sector.

By broadening access for unemployed people to training and jobs in healthcare, the Learning Hub is a key way of helping to reduce disadvantage and helping UHB to become a “community asset”. Opening in September 2008, the Hub has actively worked alongside NHS partners and those from the public, private, voluntary and community sectors.

The project successfully placed its 1,000th person into work earlier this year when Adam Parker began working as a theatre orderly at QEHB.

David Taylor, UHB’s Head of Regeneration, said he was delighted with the result, which capped off a fine 2010 for the Learning Hub: “We’ve placed our 1,000th person into work, seen the new hospital open up opportunities and now we’ve won this prestigious award, so it has been quite a year for us.

“We are very proud of the Learning Hub and it’s absolutely brilliant for the Hub to be nationally recognised like this. This is a very prestigious award, and it’s what the Hub staff deserve for all the work they have put in.

“But most of all it’s about being a part of the community and giving unemployed people the chance of a job. We have people working across the region as a result of the training done at the Learning Hub.”