Gateshead Health NHS Foundation Trust

Stuart Costelloe-Ferguson, Pathology Training Manager at Gateshead Health NHS Foundation Trust, has benefitted from a successful collaboration with the University’s apprenticeship programme.

"In my current role, I support training, education, and development for pathology staff across all levels, including internal training, competency procedures, and development opportunities, as well as supporting individuals on external courses and qualifications. I also develop strategic approaches to enhancing the learning environment including building opportunities and networks with the wider organisation and region.

I support my apprentices by promoting the concept of "Off the Job" (OTJ), ensuring that this time is protected for them and working with departments to support how this can be managed. I've developed tutorials and support sessions to allow for opportunities for questions and answers, and to raise issues for escalation to organisational management and apprenticeship providers.

Some of the apprenticeship courses are very new, so the challenges have been about understanding the course and its delivery and providing feedback to providers to enable collaborative changes to balance work and study. OTJ can be a challenge, especially when introducing new mentors to the apprentices (as we develop the number of apprentices in the departments) who may not be aware of the concept of OTJ. Providing opportunities for questions and answers, support sessions, and informational awareness of OTJ has supported the development of our mentors.

As apprenticeships are increasingly recognised within departments, individuals see others developing and want to undertake an apprenticeship themselves. Apprenticeships have also encouraged career progression; we've introduced Level 2 apprenticeships in Healthcare Science, allowing for career progression from band 2 (without any prior pathology knowledge) through to qualified Biomedical Scientist using the Level 4 and Level 6 apprenticeship courses. This is also seen within the Business Administrator apprenticeship, supporting those without business administration qualifications working in those roles, and leadership qualifications from Level 3 through to Level 7 in senior leadership roles.

My advice to other organisations looking to introduce apprenticeships is to be aware of an apprentice's work life balance. It requires a lot of work to implement apprentices into practice and to help them balance work requirements with study and personal lives, so be aware of this, and don't overload the service with too many at once while working out what support is required.

If I could sum up my experience of implementing apprenticeships in my organisation with the University of Sunderland, I'd say it's been a positive collaboration. The University has been great with taking on feedback provided through employer liaison groups or directly from mentors/training officers, and have been open and approachable to allow that communication to take place. The University can provide support and feedback to us as employers to allow us to develop our "side" of the course and enhance our workplace support for the apprentices."