We’re celebrating National Apprenticeship Week

We’re proud to be celebrating National Apprenticeship Week (3rd – 7th February), which aims to celebrate the impact of apprenticeships on individuals, employers and the economy.

Here at St Andrew’s Healthcare we have over 100 apprentices working across the charity, in a variety of roles and at different levels.

Niall Spencer is a nursing associate apprentice at St Andrew’s Healthcare. He says one of the positives of undertaking an apprenticeship course is there is no student debt.

Niall explains, “I am in my forties with a mortgage and family, it is a massive advantage to learn and develop whilst not adding any student debt. The apprenticeship course is a very convenient way to earn and learn. The flexibility is fantastic, combining work, family and university life whilst completing the apprenticeship.

“I have taken a step back, to go forward. At St Andrew’s Healthcare there are many opportunities to progress as it’s a big organisation with a diverse range of patients and wards, as well as a variety of roles. I would definitely recommend the apprenticeship route to everyone, as it gives an enormous amount of opportunity as well as lots of flexibility.”

Apprenticeships provide a great opportunity for St Andrew’s to unlock the potential in our staff, while promoting diversity in the workplace and benefiting from everyone in the talent pool. Subjects include hospitality and catering, business administration, IT, HR, Leadership & Management, allied health professions and nursing disciplines. Apprenticeships are an excellent route into health and care for people of all ages, and help participants to develop skills, knowledge, confidence, attitudes and behaviours.

Vicky Wheatley – Learning and Development Manager at St Andrew’s, explained: “Niall’s story is an excellent example of using apprenticeships to progress your career beyond the Healthcare Assistant role. It’s a really exciting time to be involved in apprenticeships, with more degree apprenticeships becoming available across different clinical roles, that offer opportunities to progress into both allied health professional roles as well as nursing.”

We know that our staff are our greatest asset and we take our role as a good and ethical employer very seriously.

We encourage continuous learning and development in all parts of the Charity. We invest significant time and resource in equipping each person for their role with us, to maintain and improve the quality of the care we provide.

To find out more, please click here to read about career development with us.