Early career to senior leaders

Here at Guy’s and St Thomas’ we offer apprenticeships to a range of individuals – from those in their early career right up to senior leaders. It’s a cost-effective way to develop knowledge, skills and behaviours.

It’s important to emphasise that the learner doesn’t pay. We’re drawing down on the apprenticeship levy and for us, it’s also a powerful way to build multidisciplinary networks. Whether that’s across our clinical professions, including nursing and midwifery and allied health, or individuals within our admin and clerical professions and those within corporate services.

Choosing the programme

We decided to embark on the Chartered Manager Health and Social Care Degree Apprenticeship for several reasons. Firstly, we really want to give individuals who perhaps may have not previously been in formal education, or may have not undertaken a degree, the chance to gain that qualification. It has been particularly useful for those who have found themselves in a management role after a number of years here within the Trust.

The integrated ‘care’ element of Health and Social Care is really important for us. We were looking for individuals across several different specialisms across a number of different levels of seniority. To really encourage thinking in that way, to bring together that health and social care focus. 

The programme gives apprentices the chance to deliver projects, not just in a theoretical sense, but to have a lasting legacy for us as an organisation and for our patients. 

Partnering with Manchester Met

Guy’s and St Thomas’ chose to partner with Manchester Metropolitan University for a number of reasons. The fact that we’re able to combine learning from both the faculties of Health and Business is really powerful. We get that focus on health but also the benefits of cross-sector pollination from the Faculty of Business as well. Being able to join those two together was really interesting for us.

We liked the fact that the Mary Seacole programme was integrated within the course, and so allowed us to offer that at scale to individuals on a multidisciplinary basis.

Finally, the fact that this is a condensed programme that our apprentices can complete in just two years, from a time management perspective is really valuable for us. 

Bringing the course to you

We had a real desire to work with Manchester Met because of their credentials and the fact that they’re bringing both the Faculty of Health and the Faculty of Business together. But for us, it would be difficult for individuals to be travelling to Manchester, particularly given the operational pressures of the Trust. So, the fact that the programme comes to us and we can run it in London is really powerful for us both in terms of cost, but also from a time management perspective as well.

Achieving strategic aims

At Guy’s and St Thomas, the Chartered Manager Degree Apprenticeship programme helps us achieve our strategic aims on a range of levels. 

Firstly, on a national basis. If we look at the NHS People Plan and NHS People Promise there are clear objectives in fostering that sense of belonging and continuing to develop our workforce. So particularly for individuals who perhaps haven’t had that formal education previously, we’re giving them the chance to enrol on a degree programme. Also, for those who may have already had the education, this is an opportunity to further enhance their management and leadership capability through a formal programme. To do so with an institution like Manchester Met is really compelling for us. 

If we look more locally, Guy’s and St Thomas’ are based in Lambeth and Southwark – two of the most diverse parts of the country – and we know for us that it’s really important to have a workforce that is representative of the community that we serve and that that delivers better patient care for us. However, we know that at more senior levels we do not have that diverse representation. This is an opportunity for us to focus on individuals who might be early in their career, where we know that there is more diversity, and we’re able to build those talent pipelines for individuals who will be in leadership positions in the future. That’s why programmes like this are really important. 

Reflecting our values

Equality, diversity, and inclusion are really paramount for us. So, from the beginning, we have always sought to ensure that we have diverse cohorts and that there are no barriers for individuals from a senior level from underrepresented groups.

So for us, this programme enables us to build that diverse pipeline of future leaders, particularly for those who may not have had the opportunity before. If those pipelines weren’t representative of the community we serve, we wouldn’t be doing our patients a service. We work with Manchester Met, to ensure that equality, diversity, and inclusion run right through the heart of the programme.

We would absolutely recommend a degree apprenticeship with Manchester Met.