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Views from the inside…

Apprenticeships – a managers view

What would you say to someone thinking about doing an apprenticeship?

I give them info about working for us as a trust at band 3 and having a wage whilst training, the fact they they are attending lectures  alongside the other students in their year, and that their clinical aspect of the programme is delivered by us in house.  The training is 3 years like the other students but they have to then undertake an end point assessment (EPA) – which means that they wont qualify in July they will qualify slightly later as they need to do the EPA.  Would also give them info about what podiatry is and what types of pts and clinicians and conditions we see as a pod

What would you say to an nhs trust considering starting an apprenticeship programme?

Its an invaluable way that we can grow our own workforce and support them to then work for us in the future, we get to nurture the staff and help them become embedded in the workforce from an early stage.  They also have the ability to experience and see how we work and what we do much more clearly than other students.  We are hopeful that by growing our own workforce that we are then able to retain then in the NHS  as long term staff

Was there a specific reason we started when we did?

I was on the trailblazer team that designed the apprenticeship programme, so as a result I was then very keen for it to come into fruition.  I was also very lucky to work closely with education team for ESHT and tell them about the new programme and get them on board early asking them about the levy and getting us the money in place to be able to then offer this – who were also very keen to take up the option of the new apprentice podiatry roles.  I see this as the way that we will be able to support new staff  into the NHS, and retain them within the team.  I have also secured more levy money for us to recruit more apprentice pods  over our established budget so that in the future we will have at least 1  for each year and hoping that we will support 2 for each year in the future – this has been built into our workforce plans for the future with the trust

If there were 3 things someone considering starting an apprenticeship needed to know/or needed to put in place, before starting what would they be?

Need to be clear with education team within the trust that they are set up for the levvy and they have that ready and good to go prior to them recruiting.

To recruit with the university for that apprentice post – so that the person is accepted by the trust as well as the uni at the very start

To make sure that you have the JD and person specs in place prior to recruitment – as that also takes some time to do and has to go through a panel