Going back a few years I and my husband were members of a Hospital Radio group which put out programmes to patients in various hospitals. The point of this is that the particular group we worked with had a large number of members who worked professionally in radio. Upshot of this was that all members got to do the official BBC Sound Engineer training (and got the qualification for free) - whilst at the same time providing a good voluntary service for the patients.

It could well be worth your while enquiring to see if you have a local hospital/voluntary radio service who provide training.

Good luck - my time with hospital radio AND the training were really enjoyable, I hope you find the same.

Polly