How degree apprenticeships at Manchester Met are supporting the health service

This year, Manchester Met is celebrating its 200th anniversary. As part of our celebrations, we’re showcasing our successes and the great work we’re doing to build a better future for all.  
 
We sat down with Liz Gorb, Director of Apprenticeships at Manchester Met, the UK’s top university provider of degree apprenticeships (RateMyApprenticeship Awards 2019-23), to discuss how apprenticeships are helping to support our national health service.  

How do degree apprenticeships at Manchester Met support the health care service?  

At Manchester Met, six of our degree apprenticeship programmes specialise in health-related areas, from Social Worker and Specialist Community Nurse to Advanced Clinical Practitioner and Healthcare Scientist.  
 
In September 2021 we developed our apprenticeships delivery model to support the NHS with their ambitious People Plan, rolling out our Chartered Manager Health and Social Care Degree Apprenticeship nationally across locations such as London, Birmingham, Cambridge, and Leeds. Recognising the time pressures on health professionals, the University has created hubs in these cities to reduce travel times for the students and encourage face-to-face learning and peer support. 
  
Manchester Met partners with the NHS Leadership Academy to deliver their Mary Seacole programme as part of the Chartered Manager Degree Apprenticeship in Health and Social Care. This has been a great collaboration and is a welcome addition for employers, helping them to address management skills and leadership fundamentals, and for NHS staff who really value the fact that they can achieve multiple qualifications within one programme.  
  
It is encouraging to see that the NHS recognises apprenticeships as a valuable route to developing and retaining the workforce of our health care system. Ambitions for apprenticeships feature heavily in the NHS England’s Long Term Workforce Plan, which recognises the merit of apprenticeships and how they can be used to upskill and upscale the NHS workforce. Indeed, the NHS aims to provide 22% of all training for clinical staff through apprenticeship routes by 2031/32.  

The degree apprenticeship programme helps us achieve our strategic aims on a range of levels. If we look at the NHS People Plan and NHS People Promise, there are clear objectives in fostering that sense of belonging and continuing to develop our workforce. So particularly for individuals who perhaps haven’t had that formal education previously, we’re giving them the chance to enrol on a degree programme. Also, for those who may have already had the education, this is an opportunity to further enhance their management and leadership capability through a formal programme. To do so with an institution like Manchester Met is really compelling for us.

- Patrick Reihill, Talent Manager, Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust 

Manchester Metropolitan University is a major provider of graduates to the NHS and currently one of the largest university educators of nursing and health professionals in North West England. Working with over 130 NHS employers, we have seen over 930 apprenticeship alumni graduate and enter healthcare roles, providing a talent pipeline and supporting the resilience of the NHS workforce across Greater Manchester. More specifically, our degree apprenticeship programmes enable qualified nurses to become either health visitors, district nurses or school nurses. This adds around forty or fifty specialist nurses to the community workforce every year, touching people at all stages of life.  

What are the real-world health impacts of our apprenticeships?  

In 2023, 65 of our nursing apprentices came together to showcase their final year projects, centred around ‘empowering populations to enhance health and wellbeing’. These projects, which saw real-world implementation in their communities, spanned a broad range of public health issues. These included: increasing awareness of epilepsy, insulin pen recycling, tackling child poverty and reducing vaping rates in young people.  Bethany Howard, a District Nurse apprentice, tackled loneliness among care home residents by introducing childminder visits. The project helped reduce patient anxiety, boost job satisfaction among care home staff, and improved the social skills of the children – a scheme which has been adopted by the care home. 
  
Degree Apprenticeships play a significant role in supporting the healthcare system by offering a practical hands-on approach whilst simultaneously addressing skills shortages and improving patient care. A recent survey asked Manchester Met employers to assess the “degree of impact” degree apprenticeships had on a range of objectives. The elements which scored the highest were growing talent (100%), bringing knowledge into the organisation (88%), encouraging progression on the career ladder (81%), and reducing skills shortages (79%).  
  
With programmes designed in collaboration with healthcare employers, Manchester Met can offer support for emerging critical skills shortages, ensuring that the curriculum aligns with the specific needs of the role. Allowing individuals to gain both academic knowledge as well as practical skills specific to their area of practice, degree apprenticeships develop a skilled workforce that is tailored to the needs of the healthcare system. They also ensure that healthcare professionals are equipped with the most up to date skills and expertise needed to provide high quality patient-centred care.  

I’ve been working in the NHS since I was 16, and I’d got to the point where I’d hit the ceiling. I couldn’t go for more senior positions without a degree, so my line manager suggested looking at degree apprenticeships. We now have six team members studying apprenticeships from L4 – L7, and we’ve seen the benefits of the knowledge and skills they’re bringing into the workplace. 

– Liam Brierley, Senior Information Manager, Tameside, and Glossop Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust, CMDA H&SC apprentice 

Recently, Mandy Knowles, Specialist Community Public Health Nursing Degree Apprentice was recognised for her innovative High School immunisation project. This was an initiative focused on enhancing healthcare inclusivity in Manchester by breaking language barriers for immigrant families. Through translating vital information into languages such as Urdu and Arabic, her project ensures accessibility for every parent or carer to make informed decisions about their child’s health, which has long-term positive effects on a local community that represents the diverse demographic of Greater Manchester.  
  
By nurturing a skilled and adaptable workforce, degree apprenticeships are able meet the evolving needs of patients and healthcare organisations, supporting the professional development of frontline workers and healthcare managers across multiple disciplines and greatly impacting the health and wellbeing of people’s lives.  
 
We aim to deliver degree apprenticeships in all NHS regions in England, with programmes specifically designed to achieve high impact in the shortest possible amount of time. With a current vacancy rate of 10.9% (NHS England, March 2023), we recognise that every second counts in a time where our incredible health service is suffering from a lack of funding and a shortage of staff and training.

To find out more about our health and social care degree apprenticeship programmes click here.