How are primary care employers benefiting from apprenticeships?
Across the primary care sector, employers are increasingly using apprenticeships to help combat skills shortages and build an experienced, flexible and happier workforce.
Apprenticeships offer organisations, such as GPs, dental practices, pharmacies and optometrists, a practical and cost-effective way to attract new talent and re-skill existing staff across a range of clinical and non-clinical roles, ensuring the right knowledge and abilities are in place to deliver high quality care and services.
In recent months, the government has laid out its plans for implementing apprenticeship reforms over the next five years as it seeks to increase the quality and quantity of apprenticeships and achieve three million apprenticeship starts by 2020.
How can taking on an apprentice benefit your workplace?
Most apprenticeships are available at a variety of levels, which means employers can select the most relevant apprenticeship based on the requirements of the job and the apprentice’s previous experience. Importantly, it also provides apprentices with a clearly defined progression pathway within their chosen occupation.
One example of the benefits of apprenticeships in primary care organisations can be seen in the case study video from Salisbury Medical Practice. As it demonstrates, many apprentices go on to full-time employment with the organisation in which they undertook their apprenticeship, with employers valuing the quality of training and their apprentices’ knowledge of their organisation.
Government funding is available to help employers with apprenticeship training costs. Eligible employers receive 100% of the cost of apprenticeship training if the apprentice is aged 16–18 and a contribution towards training fees where the apprentice is aged 19 or over. From April, employers will no longer have to pay national insurance contributions for any apprentice under the age of 25.
Employers engage with apprenticeships for a variety of reasons. Many are looking to build a pipeline of skilled future staff and to increase service quality. Apprenticeships also help employers improve staff morale, increase efficiency within the workplace and improve the diversity of their workforce.
“Stress from work” is an all too familiar phrase we hear and with a recent study citing more than one in five people take a day off work due to stress, this is something employers need to be mindful of. Apprenticeships offer employers the opportunity to increase staff numbers without too much strain on budgets, providing support to other staff members, helping to create a less stressful workplace.
What support is available from the National Skills Academy for Health?
The National Skills Academy for Health provides free advice and guidance on all aspects of employing apprentices. They help employers identify which apprenticeship programmes would benefit their organisation the most, provide advice on funding and grants and ensure employers secure the best local training provision.
As an alternative to employing an apprentice directly, the Academy’s Apprenticeship Training Agency can employ the apprentice on an employer’s behalf, taking on all of the HR and performance management responsibilities.
Which roles in primary care are suitable for an apprenticeship?
Apprenticeships provide alternative routes into a variety of careers within primary care organisations.
In non-clinical roles, apprenticeships can be used to develop customer service and administration skills and to train managers and team leaders. Apprenticeships are also available to develop specialist back-office skills in areas such as finance and IT.
In GP practices, where around half of all practice nurses are due to retire in five years, establishing healthcare assistant apprenticeships can help employers to grow their own future workforce. Once trained and assessed, healthcare assistant apprentices can carry out many essential day-to-day tasks, including taking bloods, performing electrocardiogram tests and completing new patient checks, all helping to alleviate pressure on the practice and provide an enhanced service to patients.
Within dental practices, apprenticeships enable employers to grow their own dental nurses and dental technicians, while in pharmacy there are apprenticeships to train pharmacy assistants and pharmacy technicians.
There are also a range of apprenticeships relevant to optometrists. These enable apprentices to train in roles such as optical assistants, dispensing assistants, contact lens assistants and optical retail receptionists.
For further information on apprenticeships in primary care, including case studies featuring a range of primary care employers, visit the National Skills Academy for health’s website or email information@nsahealth.org.uk.
Content on this page is produced and paid for by Skills for Health
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