The mentor plays a unique role in an apprentice’s journey: Help Skills for Health Meet the Mentors!
@skillsforhealth – Being a healthcare apprentice ‘mentor’ is no easy feat. This is someone who supports the apprentice’s development in the workplace from the very beginning of their new role – they may also be called a manager or supervisor in some settings. They help coach and lead our nation’s healthcare apprentices in building their approach, rapport, teamwork, integrity, positivity, and professionalism, whilst also imparting subject-matter expertise, company procedures and ways of working. More often than not, this close relationship will be ongoing for the full duration of the apprenticeship, helping them to achieve their full potential.
It is very easy to see then, why the mentor performs a unique role in the life of an apprentice, and why this is frequently reflected in the appreciation an apprentice shares for them, attributing this to their achievement. Yet, while the integral contribution apprentice’s make is quite rightly recognised across healthcare organisations today, what is perhaps less widely celebrated is this key supporting role the mentor plays in their success.
Consequently, Skills for Health, together with partners Health Apprenticeships Standards Online (HASO) want to understand more about what it means to fill these big shoes, as a colleague, role model, leader, and teacher? Essentially, being the key to the apprentice’s entire experience. And their Meet the Mentors online series is now open to help them find out!
As the Sector Skills Council for Health, Skills for Health have always looked to shine a light on the UK’s healthcare apprentices, championing this vital route into the sector and celebrating the diversity of opportunity and value they bring to the workforce. Over the last year, the impact apprentices have made has only strengthened, as they all stepped up to play an enormous part in the COVID-19 response, and they could not have done so without their mentors supporting them.
So, after Skills for Health’s much welcomed 2020 Meet the Apprentice online series, in collaboration with HASO, where they celebrated and gained an insight into the rising stars of the NHS, this year they are keen to Meet the Mentors behind them.
Apprentice mentors commonly say that mentoring others is one of the most rewarding things they have ever done in their career. Yet, supporting an apprentice can be challenging. Things don’t always go smoothly. Nevertheless, there will be countless times that a mentor’s guidance will prove pivotal in the apprentice’s journey.
If you’re a mentor, or have been recently, Skills for Health want to hear your experiences with a short survey. Tell them of the benefits, the challenges, the opportunities and the successes, plus what tips you might have for people who want to get involved.
Your story will be published in their online series and shared across both @SkillsforHealth and @HASOEngland Twitter accounts, helping them continue to champion not only the invaluable contribution apprentices make up and down the country but also the vital role their mentors play, encouraging even more colleagues to follow in these important footsteps, building the future of our NHS.
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