Supporting our team's personal and professional development
At our Trust, we believe that apprenticeships are a great way for employees to gain new skills, grow their careers, while simultaneously contributing to the health and wellbeing of our communities .
As part of National Apprenticeship Week, we caught up with two colleagues on their time completing an apprenticeship alongside their full-time roles.
Meet Ian Jordan , Level 3 Team Leader Apprenticeship
What inspired you to do this apprenticeship ?
The opportunity for setting the foundations for further career development and cementing previous learning and gaining new skills.
What are your key takeaways?
How supportive my tutors were to bring the best out of me and making the learning stick. The support of your managers is important to get the true benefits from it.
What is next for you now have completed your apprenticeship?
Look forward to doing another one after completing this one and having spoken to the Trust Apprenticeship team I have found one that can have a strong impact my current role and support colleagues in the wider Trust.
What advice would you give anyone considering doing an apprenticeship?
If you are thinking about it. Do it! If you haven't thought about it, please do, and speak to the Apprenticeship Team or colleagues who have done it they can give you some clear insight. Also, the s upport for functional skills is exceptional so don't feel its a barrier.
Meet Elisha Parkinson, Nursing Associate Apprenticeship
What inspired you to do this apprenticeship?
When I began my career in the Trust, I was quite shocked at the disparities our service users face regarding their physical health. Once I learned about the experience I could gain in physical health under the Nursing associate program I felt this was the best way forward in my career to support me in reducing health inequalities for our service users.
What are your key takeaways from your experience so far?
What didn’t I learn? I was given incredible experiences during the programme, such as working in large acute medical units, ventilator units, paediatrics, surgery as well as other community mental health teams all of which has had a direct impact on my practice. Gaining this experience has allowed me to provide even more in-depth physical health checks.
What is next for you once you have completed your apprenticeship?
I intend on expanding my knowledge further and eventually further training, but for now I’m really focusing on the attendance to our CMA clinics, as well as being lucky enough to train as a clozapine operator to support our clinic and am supporting the running of our depot clinic. I want our community team to be a leading team when it comes to our service user’s physical health.
What advice would you give anyone considering doing an apprenticeship?
I found the apprenticeship a very accessible way into further education and I am grateful to work for a Trust that puts a great deal of time into development. So, if you are keen on expanding your knowledge or experience then do find out about your options with the learning and development team.
Our apprenticeships are available to all staff, both clinical and non-clinical. If you are interested in working with us, check out our live vacancies.
