Health and Social Care Apprenticeships

adults with learning disabilities, care of the elderly and domiciliary care working to help people to be able to stay in their own homes. These are such important job roles helping people who are disabled or infirm to maintain a good quality of life. The initiative is not aimed at replacing professionals but rather providing another pathway to achieving a role that requires much needed skills within the sector. The apprenticeship allows for a seamless vocational route offering a structured career pathway for the apprentice. The vocational route is key where a sector needs skills now and in the future. The key factor to the apprenticeship is that it allows mentors to pass on life-long knowledge, and for the student to learn from the best possible knowledge source.

Summary The care sector is said to be in crisis. With uncertainty surrounding the continuity of our care services as we know them, this new apprentice initiative could well be a contributing factor in helping to ease the strain on care and health care were posts go unfilled because of a skills shortage. If successful, this may be of significance in filling the shortfall of staff with skills specific to healthcare and social care. Employers and organizations will be observant of the success of this new initiative. If successful, more areas of England may engage in this apprenticeship model and find success in filling the skills shortage gap through well trained and knowledgeable apprentices. Stuart Cook Director Bettal Quality Consultancy Further reading: https://www.shropshirestar.com/news/business/2017/08/28/ladder-for-shropshire-care-trainees-just-what-doctor-ordered/