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How a 6-week bootcamp turned young nurses into a health AI company's best data team.
A healthcare AI company needed people who understood patients and data, and couldn't find them. Skillfi designed the Clinical AI Fellowship, a 6-week bootcamp that took early-career nurses and allied health graduates into AI data roles, two cohorts at a time. 22 fellows joined the company and beat its accuracy target from their first month. It's how our career accelerator works: new careers for people, ready talent for employers.
Great AI models need people who know what a patient chart means.
The company builds AI that reads clinical notes and flags patients who need attention. Its models are only as good as the data they learn from, and that data has to be reviewed and labelled by people who understand medicine.
It had outsourced labelling to a general data vendor, and accuracy sat at 88%, below the 95% its hospital customers expected. Experienced clinicians on contract were accurate but expensive and hard to keep. Meanwhile, plenty of young nurses and allied health graduates were looking for a way out of shift work, with no idea that AI companies needed exactly their knowledge.
Our vendor's reviewers didn't know a medication from a diagnosis. The clinicians who did cost a fortune and never stayed long.
Head of Data, client
Build a fellowship, not a job ad. Train first, then hire the best.
Skillfi designed and ran the bootcamp with the client's clinical and data leads, so every lesson matched the real job. Sourcing, screening and the final hiring showcase were run alongside our fractional recruiter team.
The right fellows
1,100 applicants screened with a short clinical reasoning test and a data task, then 30 fellows chosen across two cohorts.
A bootcamp built on the real job
Six weeks of live sessions, the client's own labelling tools and anonymised cases, ending in a capstone judged by its data team.
Offers on showcase day
Fellows presented their capstones to the hiring panel, offers went out within a week and mentors stayed on for the first 90 days.
5 months, cohort by cohort
From an empty job description to a clinical data team that beats its accuracy target. Here's how the fellowship unfolded.
- Week 1–36 modules
Role & curriculum design
The data specialist role mapped with the client's leads and turned into a 6-week curriculum built on real tasks.
- Week 3–61,100 applicants
Sourcing & selection
Outreach through nursing schools, health networks and online communities, then screening tests and interviews.
- Week 7–1215 fellows
Cohort one
15 fellows through the full bootcamp, with weekly accuracy checks against the client's own quality bar.
- Week 1311 offers
First showcase day
Capstones presented to the hiring panel, with offers made within a week.
- Week 14–1915 fellows
Cohort two
A second cohort of 15, improved with feedback from the first group and their new managers.
- Week 2022 hired
Second showcase & handover
11 more offers and the bootcamp playbook handed over, so the client can run future cohorts.
Six weeks, from clinic to AI team
Fellows already knew medicine. The bootcamp taught them how AI learns from data, and how to make that data trustworthy.
How health AI works
- AI & data basics
- How models learn
- Patient privacy rules
Labelling with care
- The client's labelling tools
- Clinical guidelines
- Speed with accuracy
Catching what AI misses
- Edge cases & disagreements
- Spotting bias in data
- Peer review
Ready on day one
- Real anonymised project
- Showcase to the panel
- Workplace skills
One year after the first cohort
Clinical labelling accuracy
Above the 95% target hospital customers expect.
The fellows understood the patient behind every record from day one. We now run our own cohorts with Skillfi's playbook, and it's become our main hiring route for data roles.
Head of Data, clientCan't find the talent? Build your own cohort.
Our career accelerator designs and runs bootcamps around your real roles, so graduates and career changers join ready to work. Need help finding the right people to train? Our fractional recruiter team can fill your cohorts.
- Role & curriculum design
- Sourcing & selection
- Bootcamp delivery, cohort by cohort
- Showcase day & hiring
30 minutes. No obligation.
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