This week we spoke to Yasmin Ali, our Head of Education Transformation and Workforce Development. She started her career as a radiographer before discovering her passion for education and combining the two.

Age: 39

Lives: in Romford with her husband

And: Yasmin is a keen vlogger and documents her travels with her husband.

You have an amazing accent! Where are you from originally?

It’s from the states of course! Nice, sunny, Florida! It’s been five years now that I’ve been here (in the UK). I’m a radiographer by background and then I went into mammography. While I was a radiographer, I used to teach the students that would come in and give them hints on positioning and anatomy. Several of them said to me ‘you’d make a really great teacher’ and I was like ‘oh, there is a thought’. This started my formal journey into the field of health education which would complement my Masters in public health. It also made me realise that students can inspire educators and vice versa. After long nights of studying and surrendering my weekends, I completed my doctorate in Education!

Before coming from the states, I was the Dean of a non-medical college in Miami, Florida. That was really cool and rewarding. I felt like I was in my element. The college catered to the community and encouraged learners from diverse backgrounds to join the profession. Our mission was to get everybody and anybody interested in the healthcare profession. I’m sure you’ve heard of Wal-Mart and places like that – so we situated our campuses in such areas and said to people passing by, ‘Hey, have you thought about healthcare?’

I found it rewarding to help people achieve their dream and pursue a career in healthcare. I attended all the graduation days which were emotional, but also awesome.

What roles have you done in the UK?

Because I’m a radiographer and there’s such a shortage, I quickly got headhunted for mammography posts. I was a service manager at King’s College Hospital and I did that for a couple of years. Because of my background in public health, I did a year at Public Health England in London. When I finally saw a role for the Head of Education Transformation and Workforce Development, I thought it was perfect and I was excited that it would allow me to go back to my true passion and be part of an education team. Since I moved here, that’s all I’ve been looking for- an organisation that believes as strongly about healthcare and education as I do and I have finally found that in our Trust.

What does the role entail?

Anything and everything! It’s still fairly new; I only started in September so I’m still trying to get my head around it but a lot of it at the moment is focused on improving the provision of learners across the Trust. As I’m an allied health professional by background, I really want raise the profile and say to my colleagues, ‘You can move up the ladder, it just depends how motivated and enthusiastic you are and what your passion is’.

Technology is huge so one of the other things I’m concentrating on is how can we get more technologically advanced education and digital/blended training; let’s not miss out on this!

Research is important and underpins education, so we will focus on evidence and results to enhance student learning. Continual professional development is a huge part of education.  I think a lot of us get so busy in our day-to-day that we forget about our development. We should all be learning and growing every day so I really want to promote that and I want to get more people interested in education. I want them to know about the opportunities that actually exist and that the world is their oyster. My team are also responsible for new registrants via preceptorship, so it is on-going support that we are offering.

The focus at the moment is on nursing education and health care assistants. We have a lot of international nurses, we support Return to Practice as well so we’re recruiting in so many different ways which is remarkable.

How did you find starting working here during the middle of a pandemic?

It has no doubt been challenging but also super rewarding. It gave me the opportunity to support the team on the ‘shop floor’ as many of our clinical staff were redeployed.

It also showed me the resilience and determination of the team to get through the second wave by supporting the patients and students on the wards. My work carried on as training for our nursing students did not stop, it just meant we had to be more innovative and work as a team to get through this difficult time.

What do you like to do outside of work?

I have a lot of interests and hobbies. I used to love the outdoors which is a bit limited now given the drastic weather change I am experiencing. I’d never even owned a jacket until I moved here because it was always nice and warm in Miami so I never needed a jacket. I love swimming and beach activities like volleyball and hope to keep that up during the UK summers.

Since I moved here, I started an Americans in London group. Any American living in London can join. Before the pandemic, we would meet up and indulge in brunches and converse about the transition which has been a great experience.

I love travelling; I want to see all of the wonders of the world and I actually have a YouTube channel where I video all my travels with my husband and we talk about all these cool wonders we’ve seen.

I also love Netflix, but enjoy reading a book just the same. I host a monthly book club where we discuss a particular book and I ask specific questions to make sure that everyone has read the book!

I like cooking but I also like going to new restaurants and wine tastings. I’d describe myself as a foodie; I’ll try almost anything as long as it is not moving!

Your husband is British – is he the reason you moved to London?

Yes, I moved here for my husband. He tried to convince me that the British have better accents. I don’t know about that, I think the American accent is pretty clever!

When I told my friends from Miami (that I was moving to London) they said I was so lucky. But when I tell people from London that I’m from Miami, they think I’m lucky to be from Miami. So the grass is always greener, I guess. I do love it here though, I think there are so many pros; obviously working in the NHS is awesome, I get to see that first-hand. Most people can visit the UK, but to actually live in and embrace the culture here makes me quite lucky indeed.

As far as going back to the states, maybe I’ll just go back to Florida when I am ready to retire!