Local MP and Apprenticeships Minister, Gillian Keegan, joined local apprenticeship celebrations with the Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust.
As part of National Apprenticeships Week that ran from the 8th to the 14th of February, the trust held an online ceremony to celebrate and recognise some of their apprentices. The Trust now offers 268 opportunities, both clinical and non-clinical, from Level 2 (GSCE level) up to Level 7 (master’s degree level). Covering everything from Business and Administration, to Healthcare, and Mechanical Engineering.
Most popular is the nursing pathway which has supported 46 apprentices to date. Continuing this journey, many of the newly qualified Nursing Associates are due to start their Nurse Degree apprenticeships in September this year. The trust is also expanding their apprenticeship offer, piloting a Social Worker apprenticeship, with Molly Timlett, who until recently worked as a Mental Health Act Co-Ordinator and is now working towards her level 6 Social Worker apprenticeship.
The MP gave the keynote speech for the event where she congratulated the 20 award nominees put forward for the ‘Apprentice of the Year’ award, and praised the trust's leadership who are making the most of apprenticeships to train and re-train their staff.
After the event, Gillian said, “Speaking to the Trust’s apprentices I was hugely impressed by the wide range of opportunities on offer, such as Molly who is currently retraining to become Social Worker, transforming her career into a clinical facing role. A key benefit of apprenticeships, as people learn theory and practical skills in parallel, all whilst earning, making it easier for people to start new exciting career journeys at any point in their life. I will continue to support Sam Allen and her team to develop exciting new apprenticeship opportunities locally.”
Sam Allen the Trust’s Chief Executive said, “As a trust, we put our staff at the heart of what we do. I have been blown away by the uptake of our growing apprenticeship programmes, and I believe they are the future of talent development and recruitment. I’m really grateful to Gillian for speaking to some of our apprentices, her passion for our apprenticeship programmes was contagious, and with her ongoing support I look forward to seeing our schemes develop further.”
