We’re celebrating National Apprenticeship Week to highlight the importance of alternative opportunities to help people develop into long-term successful careers. They offer people an alternative route into skilled employment and are a great way to earn while gaining valuable work experience.
Apprenticeships are available to people of all ages making them a great option for anyone looking to change their career path, improve their skills and secure a new role or re-enter employment after taking time out.
Meet Grace, she started in an admin role working with our district nurses and has just achieved her dream career as a Registered Mental Health Nurse after completing an apprenticeships with us.
This National Apprenticeship Week Grace revealed:
“I’ve done both the Trainee Nurse Associate and Registered Nurse Degree Apprenticeship.
I desperately wanted to become a nurse and having two very young children thought I’d have to wait until they were older to pursue my dream career. The apprenticeships were the perfect opportunity to make my dream come true."
Here at Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust we have more than 300 apprentices studying while working on more than 40 different apprenticeships and we have had 104 apprenticeship completions over the past year, and 78 of these completions were from staff aged 30 years or older.
Grace added:
“Apprenticeships are a lot more flexible and the benefits of working and earning a wage while studying has been invaluable.
It’s a very hands on approach if you learn better outside of a classroom. The Trust has gone above and beyond to make it possible for me to complete the apprenticeship. They supported me during my son’s neuro-diverse diagnosis pathway, allowing flexibility around appointments. My advice to anyone considering an apprenticeship is, take the opportunity while it’s available you never know where you might end up or achieve your full potential until you try.”
