Supporting career development

We offer the Chartered Manager Health and Social Care Degree Apprenticeship to a mixture of clinical and non-clinical staff members. Our clinical staff members feel they have the experience, but not the leadership and management skills. The non-clinical staff members feel they have the management experience, but they don’t have the degree qualification to enable them to move to other jobs within the Trust. 

Once we identified those skills gaps, we wanted to provide the training our staff required to progress into leadership roles. 

Three qualifications in two years

This particular programme was key for us because it is a two-year programme. It takes into account the prior learning and prior experience of the participants. NHS staff members are busy, so to get these qualifications within two years is brilliant for them.

As a result, we are seeing the immediate impact that the learners are bringing into the different areas of the Trust. The learners are working on different projects, and we can already see how these projects will support the Trust internally and will improve our patient experience.

We chose Manchester Met because, currently, they are the only training provider to embed the Mary Seacole programme – a very sought-after programme within the NHS. This is a huge advantage to our learners and saves a lot of money for the Trust.

The apprentices will gain three qualifications in just two years – the apprenticeship, the degree and the Mary Seacole qualification. They also earn Chartered Manager status with the CMI.

Choosing Manchester Met

The course is delivered in London and having a programme with that kind of calibre delivered on our doorstep was a huge attraction for us.

The programme utilises blended learning, with a mixture of face-to-face and online sessions throughout the year. This helps with work-life balance, and also addresses people’s different learning styles.

When the programme was presented to us, we were shown examples of projects completed by previous apprentices. We could see the savings that had been made and the benefits to the Trusts. The idea of apprentices completing live projects and improving ways of working was very attractive for us. We knew we could use this to sell the programme to key stakeholders in the Trust, as well as the future apprentices themselves, in order to grow our own talent.

Learning from each other

Equality, diversity, and inclusion are key within the Trust – to make sure that everyone is developed and given equal chances. 

Our apprentices are part of an open cohort and the beauty of having open cohorts means you have people from a diverse range of organisations. There are people from the private sector and the public sector, and it’s amazing for our learners to be able to borrow ideas from each other and merge practices. Our apprentices have been able to identify different ways of working and then adapt that immediately within their job roles.

Recommending Manchester Met

I would definitely recommend the Chartered Manager Health and Social Care Degree Apprenticeship by Manchester Met to other employers. We use this programme to identify staff members who would like to develop their careers to become future managers of tomorrow. The apprenticeship is a great way to develop staff and increase retention. We’re investing in them and growing their careers within the Trust and as a result, we are then keeping that talent within our Trust.