First Allegro graduates for Ashfield

Just one year on from launch, the first cohort of fully-fledged medical writers have graduated from Macclesfield-based Ashfield Healthcare Communications Allegro training programme.

Allegro is a 12-month fast-track programme offering aspiring scientific writers the opportunity to kick-start their career in healthcare communications. At the end of the programme, recruits are offered a position within Ashfield’s agency teams as a medical writer.

Over 230 candidates applied to join Allegro, with just 60 people successfully completing the selection process and joining the programme. The first intake of 14 students have now completed the programme and taken up positions in a number of Ashfield’s agencies in the North West.

Neil Marmont, Allegro’s Programme Director, said: “This is an exciting day that marks the culmination of 12 months of hard work from our initial Allegro intake, proving that a focussed approach on learning and development can inspire individuals to achieve great things at an early stage in their career.

Today, we are able to allocate 14 capable Medical Writers to agency teams based on individual strengths, ensuring they are in the best place to support our customers and to develop their careers moving forwards. We look forward to the graduation of subsequent intakes over the coming months.”

One of the graduates, Victoria Steele commented: “Allegro’s social and supportive structure has provided a greater sense of belonging, more opportunities to grow and wider horizons than I imagined that I would have as a new writer in healthcare comms.”

Ashfield Healthcare Communications plans to increase recruitment to Allegro in 2019, expanding the geographic reach of the programme, with rotation and placement opportunities available in all office locations across the UK.

Indeed, the next intake of 17 Associate Medical Writers join the business next week – these individuals will not only support teams in the North West, but will also add valuable writing resource to Ashfields’ Glasgow, Maidenhead and Witney offices.

Anyone interested in joining the programme can email: ahcrecruitment@ashfieldhealthcare.com or call: 01625 664 022.