The University of Sheffield's Dental School together with Wheata Place Dental Clinic have developed a new student outreach programme aimed at fixing the critical national and local shortage of dental staff. The initiative will mean that several weeks of each student's training will now take place in local NHS dental clinics, freeing up space to enrol more students at the Dental School and Charles Clifford Dental Hospital. The extra students generated by the scheme will start to qualify in 2006 and many are expected to stay in the area and serve local communities. Student Cheryl Jackson welcomes the opportunity to put all her training into. 'Nothing beats getting into the real world and finding out what it's like working in a busy practice,' said Cheryl. 'It's a very positive experience, it builds confidence and gives you space to grow into your new role.' Supervising dentist Amit Vora at Wheata Place Dental Clinic said: 'Giving students a positive experience in the NHS early in their training is vitally important to future NHS services and is creating interest in these services as a career option.' The outreach programme has enabled the school to triple the number of hygiene and therapy students on the course and substantially increase the number of dental students they take in each year.