Skills for Health and National Apprenticeship Service Report
Understanding Opportunities, Overcoming Barriers

Making the Most of Apprentices in Healthcare

Apprenticeships have much to offer the health sector – the awards take a rigorous and structured approach to developing the practical skills and background knowledge needed across the whole workforce in order to provide safe, high quality healthcare.

During 2012 Skills for Health and the National Apprenticeship Service spoke directly to employers to get a clear picture of how they view the benefits, opportunities and challenges in employing apprentices in the National Health Service. The research was conducted in London, but the findings are relevant across the country.

The Benefits

The employers we spoke to agreed that the right apprentice is a fantastic asset to the team

"...he's worked out his own processes to manage his role. At first he was shy to answer the phone, now he's talking to everybody, he's really proactive and looking after a whole list of applications".

And the programme is beneficial to the apprentice

"...you can really see his confidence has grown."

Ensuring Success

According to employers, it is vital to be clear at the outset why apprentices are being employed. What does the organisation hope will be achieved?

In the most successful cases apprentices are employed in order to address a specific business need. This could be as part of a programme to improve patient satisfaction or as a way to address recruitment issues.

With this driver in mind, it is vital to decide at the outset what to measure to demonstrate impact –programmes that have shown measurable success have proved most durable. Where apprenticeships have not been widely adopted, one of the main barriers to success has been the lack of convincing evidence.

It was noted by most of the managers that apprenticeships took root in organisations that already have a strong culture of learning and development. This also makes it easier to tackle understandable concerns held by exiting employees who have to support an apprentice's development they are already attuned to "big picture thinking" and the intrinsic value of work-based learning.

Apprentice programmes need organisational commitment to establish, however the numerous success stories make it clear that the effort can be worth it. They have the potential to be a key training and recruitment route for ensuring a future workforce with the necessary values, know-how and talent.

The full report is available for download in the resource library.