Case Study

In my current role, I support training, education, and development for Pathology staff across all levels, including internal training and competency procedures, and development opportunities, as well as supporting individuals on external courses and qualifications. I also develop strategic approaches to enhancing the learning environment including building opportunities and networks with the wider organisation and region.

I support my apprentices by promoting the concept of “Off the Job” (OTJ), ensuring that this time is protected for them and working with departments to support how this can be managed. I have developed tutorials and support sessions to allow for opportunities for questions and answers, and to raise issues for escalation to organisational management and apprenticeship providers.

Some of the apprenticeship courses are very new, so the challenges have been about understanding the course and course delivery and providing feedback to those providers to enable collaborative changes to delivery to balance work and study. OTJ can be a challenge when balancing work requirements and study, especially when introducing new mentors to the apprentices (as we develop the number of apprentices in the departments) who may not be aware of the concept of OTJ. Providing opportunities for questions and answers, support sessions, and informational awareness of OTJ has supported this in developing our mentors.

As apprenticeships are increasingly recognised and developed within departments, individuals see others developing, and want to undertake an apprenticeship themselves. Apprenticeships have also encouraged career progression; we have introduced Level 2 apprenticeships in Healthcare Science, allowing for career progression from Band 2 (without any prior pathology knowledge) through to qualified Biomedical Scientist using the Level 4 and Level 6 apprenticeship courses. This is also seen within the Business Administrator apprenticeship supporting those without Business Administration qualifications working in those roles, and leadership qualifications from Level 3 through to Level 7 Senior Leadership roles.

My advice to other organisations looking to introduce apprenticeships is to be aware of an apprentice's work life balance. It requires a lot of work to implement apprentices into practice and to be able to balance work requirements with study and apprentices’ personal lives, so be aware of this and don't overload the service with too many at once while working out the balance and support required.

If I could sum up my experience of implementing apprenticeships in my organisation with the University of Sunderland, I would say positive collaboration. The University has been great with taking on feedback provided through employer liaisons groups or directly from mentors/training officers, and have been open and approachable to allow that communication to take place. The University can provide support and feedback to us as employers to allow us to develop our “side” of the course and enhance our workplace support for the apprentices on the course."

Published 29 November 2024