Building the Future of Learners - National Apprenticeship Week
To celebrate National Apprenticeship Week, this year we have asked our learners to share their own journeys and experiences to highlight the benefits of apprenticeships. As the theme this year is ‘Build the Future’ we are aiming to focus on how apprenticeships can help to build a successful career path for years to come.
Ian Austin - NHS Buckinghamshire Trust
Level 3 Business Administration
Who or what inspired you to become an apprentice?
I have been working as a Ward Clerk since 2014. Prior to that I had been working as an admin assistant for Addvance Business Solutions, after having gotten two degrees from Aberystwyth University. My time as a Ward Clerk had been very rewarding from a personal and professional standpoint, but I felt that I needed to move onto the next step and get more of a career pathway going. It had been informally discussed over the years of me possibly doing a management course, yet nothing concrete was sorted or discussed until 2019, when I was told it was going to be actioned.
To this end, I was put in contact with Ruth Machado the Education Lead – Professional Development at Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust. We had a few meetings during which we discussed the course I should be doing, what options were out there, and what effect it would have on my current job. Some of the specifics were mentioned as well, which gave me some clarity. A consensus was reached, and shortly after that the preparation process began (paperwork, references etc.)
I think my inspiration for becoming an apprentice can be tracked down to having seen how the NHS works, and feeling like I can positively contribute to certain changes. I don't come from a business background, but as an observant Ward Clerk I have seen how things work in our area and feel I can provide an additional understanding for a management vocation. To this end, an apprenticeship seems a fitting next step.
What are the benefits of an apprenticeship?
The benefits of an apprenticeship are many fold.
The first is providing a sense of calm and momentum for the future. By which I mean that, prior to this, the Ward Clerk was progressed in terms of incremental pay rises. After six years having done the job I do still learn things every day, but the exponential growth of the job has been achieved. Doing an apprenticeship puts me at ease regarding career advancement, as I now know I am working towards something tangible.
The second is it makes me look at my job differently. By this I mean that I now am viewing my job through a managerial/business lens. How do my tasks influence the business end? How are my jobs seen by management? How is patient data record? How are patients coded? How are encounters tracked? These weren't questions I was asking or thinking about before, but are now, which - I believe - has improved the quality of my work exponentially.
The third is that it's made me hungrier. When I did my BA and my MA I put sufficient effort in, but now - at 36 - I feel far hungrier and enthused about my education. I think it's something you find when you get older, you enjoy learning new things. Writing assignments and rewriting/fixing said assignments and constantly striving to do the same thing better fascinates me. I look forward to the opportunity to join meetings, to engage with my course, to find innovative ways to add to my tracking hours outside of the course's purview. This has even extended to genuinely enjoying reading articles on the healthcare business model.Describe a typical day at work.
A typical week day at work consists of:
Arriving there at 07:30. The day doesn't start until 08:00, but I find I like to get ahead of myself. Immediately I l clean the desk, then look at the referrals from over night, and start preparing front sheet/labels and a discharge summary, while keeping track of which patients require scans. The scans are put on a separate list, as are the patients who have notes in A+E/other wards that I'll need to collect. Once this is all gone and the Nurses have started arriving, I head off to collect the relevant notes for the day; this is important as sometimes the notes contain information that is not on the discharge summary or the referral.
When I return to the unit, I check the board to see if there are additional scans that need chasing. CT/MRI and VQ scans are within my purview, and I begin calling these departments to see if any of these scans be accommodated that day. If they can, I call the patients to try and get them in on time. If they aren't, I lliase with the nurses to see if the patients have to attend today or if we can try again the next day. More phone calls begin at this point.
By the time I'm finished, it's invariably 09:00 and our first patients have arrived. I will admit them as either inpatients or outpatients (depending on what they're here for/whether they've attended AECU before.) I will also have moved the notes due to go to medical records/letters for posting to my desk. The letters can be picked up by the post team straight away, but the notes for medical records will be sorted out later on. I will also have made a list of rescans that need booking for the next week, but - again - these will be sorted out later on.
The morning from 09:00 to 11:00 is spent admitting patients/discharging patients, manning the phones and making sure things run as smoothly as possible from the administrative side.
At 11:00 I begin sorting through the notes to medical records. I could do this earlier, but I find it's best to keep the notes until the next afternoon as, quite often, the doctors find they will need the notes at around 13:00 or some such. I can get the notes ready, but they're still available until 14:00. This process usually takes about an hour, by which it's 12:00 and time for my first break of the day. We usually get an hour a day, which I spread over two half-hours slots at 12:00 and 16:00. During my 12:00 lunch break I sit in the staff room, have lunch and read a book, relaxing after a usually busy morning.
After lunch, at about 12:30, I begin sorting out the rescan day/times. I have started to set the ball rolling with this by giving the information to X-Ray appointments just after 09:00, and then picking up scheduled appointment off our blood/scan reporting system later on. I then call the patients, confirm the appointments in our calendars, and file the notes.
The rest of the afternoon is spent admitting/discharging patients. I do have an ongoing Ward Clerk list of outpatient scans/results to chase ETC. I tend to check this at about 14:00 every day.
At 16:00 I go for my second break. Things are easing up at this point, and it's a good chance for a reprieve.
By 17:00 things slow down a tad, and I usually try to use this time to do a few hours of coursework. It isn't always possible, and sometimes I even spread it out through the whole day (two hours or so of course work over eleven and a half hours), but the last three hours are usually the best point.
At around 20:00, things are at a crawl and we're getting ready to leave. I clean the desk again, make sure the patients are all discharged accordingly, and it's time to go home.
What do you enjoy most about your role, and why?
I think the thing I enjoy most about Ward Clerk is the sense the job encompasses so many disparate parts. I do receptionist work, admin work, secretarial work, and even some managerial work, all wrapped up in the term Ward Clerk. I'm not just sat behind a desk all day, I'm dealing with patients and doctors and nurses and have to be far more social than I would be in another job, which has positives and negatives.
I also like the people I work with. We have a really, really good team in AECU full of lovely, hard working, hilarious people. Getting motivated for work is easy when you're invariably working with people you genuinely get on famously with.
How do you think an apprenticeship has improved or opened up your career options/progression?
The benefits of an apprenticeship are many fold.
The first is providing a sense of calm and momentum for the future. By which I mean that, prior to this, the Ward Clerk was progressed in terms of incremental pay rises. After six years having done the job I do still learn things every day, but the exponential growth of the job has been achieved. Doing an apprenticeship puts me at ease regarding career advancement, as I now know I am working towards something tangible.
The second is it makes me look at my job differently. By this I mean that I now am viewing my job through a managerial/business lens. How do my tasks influence the business end? How are my jobs seen by management? How is patient data record? How are patients coded? How are encounters tracked? These weren't questions I was asking or thinking about before, but are now, which - I believe - has improved the quality of my work exponentially.
The third is that it's made me hungrier. When I did my BA and my MA I put sufficient effort in, but now - at 36 - I feel far hungrier and enthused about my education. I think it's something you find when you get older, you enjoy learning new things. Writing assignments and rewriting/fixing said assignments and constantly striving to do the same thing better fascinates me. I look forward to the opportunity to join meetings, to engage with my course, to find innovative ways to add to my tracking hours outside of the course's purview. This has even extended to genuinely enjoying reading articles on the healthcare business model.
Why would you recommend apprenticeships to others?
I would heartily recommend an apprenticeship. The ability to learn a mix of invaluable life skills and specific educational/course/vocation skills while working towards something tangible at the end career wise is a fantastic concept. I feel like I've learned a lot since my apprenticeship started and yet, at the same time, still have much to learn. It's improved my confidence, the quality of my learning, my ability to read cross-sectional information and given my a renewed desire for learning in general.
Sandijs Zarins - Pentagon Motor Group
Level 2 Vehicle Parts
Who or what inspired you to become an apprentice?
My friend was doing apprenticeship at the time and it sounded quite good for me as you can learn more actual work by being in work place not college or university. I think I made a right choice for me as I have never looked back.
What are the benefits of an apprenticeship?
There are loads of benefits from apprenticeship as you get qualification and actually get used to being at real work place and actually work. But mostly this apprenticeship has gave me much more confidence and I have learned loads of new skills which I don't think I would of ever learned without this apprenticeship and without my tutor.
Describe a typical day at work.
Everyday can bring something new but usually in the morning I come in and do all my parts receiving into stock and invoicing all to customers, do my banking from the day before and then I just do my normal stuff like parts returns for 5 different franchises, part credits for customer, invoice verifying, cash allocations, G and I reports, ordering parts for customers, claiming wrong, no longer required or damaged parts, cheque requisition and more.
What do you enjoy most about your role, and why?
Not going to lie but I kind of enjoy most of the things about my role but mostly I think is claiming for parts as sometimes it can be challenging because some parts need additional information to be claimed and returned and sometimes its hard to find them. Like a little bit of a challenge :)
How do you think an apprenticeship has improved or opened up your career options?
I think it has improved my options as now I have full qualification and if I ever want to change my job I could go in any motor trade and be able to do the job :)
David Moore - Buckingham Group
Level 3 Construction Contracting Operations
Who or what inspired you to become an apprentice?
My careers adviser at Opportunity Lambeth.
What are the benefits of an apprenticeship?
The real life hands-on experience of the job role gained from the apprenticeship.
Describe a typical day at work.
Daily works involve:
Inducting operatives on site.
Attending management co-ordination meeting.
Assisting site engineer.
Marking-up drawings of progression of sub-contractors, and producing progress reports.
Assisting managers with daily tasks.
etc.What do you enjoy most about your role, and why?
The thing I enjoy about my role is meeting/liaising with supervisors/managers of each sub-contractor. My reason for enjoying this about my role is that I get to engage with supervisors/managers at a managerial level.
How do you think an apprenticeship has improved or opened up your career options/progression?
This apprenticeship has allowed me to become more assertive giving me the experience, and confidence needed to progress within my career.
Why would you recommend apprenticeships to others?
I would highly recommend an apprenticeship to others because it builds the initial foundations needed in becoming the perfect candidate for the job role criteria.
Jakub Mielczarek - Bam Nuttall
Level 2 Groundworker
Who or what inspired you to become an apprentice?
I was inspired by a friend who was praising it and I became interested.
What are the benefits of an apprenticeship?
It opens a range of career paths for me and my future.
Describe a typical day at work.
We would start the day with a briefing and making sure we have all the permits and tools and men we need for the job and then get in touch with the engineers to set out the work that we need to and then we crack on.
What do you enjoy most about your role, and why?
I enjoy being thrown in the deep end and giving everything a go.
How do you think an apprenticeship has improved or opened up your career options?
It will set me up to be bale to work on many different sites around the world.
Why would you recommend apprenticeships to others?
I would recommend this as you will be able to travel the world with the job and have many different aspects of the job.
Isaac Wardman - Bam Nuttall
Level 2 Groundworker
Who or what inspired you to become an apprentice?
I preferred it than going to college as you can start a career early and earn money.
What are the benefits of an apprenticeship?
Starting in a company early, potential for a life long career, earning money rather than going to college.
Describe a typical day at work.
Get to the yard for 7 am get ready, 7:30am leave yard and go to site 7:45am get all tools ready you will need and have briefing about the task for the day, 8am-5pm work, 6pm home.
What do you enjoy most about your role, and why?
Learning is the most enjoyable part of my role because I will be able to take the skills I learn along in life with me.
How do you think an apprenticeship has improved or opened up your career options?
It has opened up my career options as you learn multiple things and being young you have your chance to work your way up the company.
We would like to say a huge thank you to the learners who took part and made a submission. It is great to hear how much of a positive impact apprenticeships are having on the careers of our learners.