Apprenticeships are popular training programmes in care settings of all sizes. Health and social care apprentices are trained to the very highest standard. They gain practical experience of working in a care setting, and learn the skills, knowledge and behaviours to excel in their specialism. With the new standards, apprentices also take an end-point assessment to demonstrate they’re fully competent and able to perform their roles.

The health and social care sector is pretty unanimous when it comes to the benefits of apprenticeships. So how can you make sure that your delivering the best apprenticeships possible?

Learn the standards

Whether you’re delivering level 2 adult care worker or level 5 healthcare assistant apprenticeship, these standards are very different to the old frameworks. The content has changed and apprentices now take an EPA at the end of their programme, rather than being continually assessed. The best way to adapt your curriculum is to learn the standards off by heart. This will also help you shift from assessing to tutoring – to teach rather than test. It still feels new to lots of people, so take time to get your head around the changes.

Collaborate

Apprenticeships are all about collaboration between the apprentice, employer and training provider. There’s a lot of people in the mix, so finding a quick and convenient way to stay in touch is a must. Face-to-face visits or even phone calls aren’t ideal in the social care setting, so using a software with remote reviews, annotations and messaging features will help everyone communicate in their own time.

Track off-the-job training

Care workers have very demanding jobs, but they still need to spend six of their contracted hours completing off-the-job learning. You’ll need to work with the care setting to decide how the minimum requirement will be met and agree this with the apprentice in the commitment statement.

Off-the-job training needs to be carefully recorded and evidenced – both for Ofsted inspections and ESFA audits. If you use an apprenticeship software that has an off-the-job training tracker, apprentices can complete learning entries and select whether it was completed off the job. They can add comments, evidence and timeframes. As the apprentice progresses, their off-the-job hours will be automatically recorded as displayed as a percentage against the minimum requirement.

Support your apprentices

Health and social care apprentices are often very motivated learners, but they’re also busy providing outstanding care every day. Make sure you keep in contact with your apprentices – send motivational messages, leave feedback and comment on their progress. You can also create engaging learning content and set quizzes to test their knowledge. This will keep learning fun and encourage them that they’re on the right track.

Prepare for EPA

No one likes to fail, so make sure your apprentices are fully prepared for EPA when they get to gateway. Check which assessment method will be used in the EPA and plan their assignments around it, so your apprentice gets lots of practice. Use an eportfolio to track progress, identify any gaps in learning, and test their knowledge.

Each of these tips will improve the quality of your apprenticeship delivery – and you can manage each of them using OneFile. With OneFile, you can create learning content, test knowledge, track progress, send feedback, collaborate online and prep for the EPA.

Using OneFile is the best way to deliver apprenticeships – that's why it’s already used by over 1 million people across the UK.

‘I’m a massive advocate of OneFile and it’s been unbelievable for our apprenticeship offer. After our previous system fell short during our last Ofsted inspection, we’ve now moved everything to OneFile – including all communication to learners and employers. It’s fantastic.’

Nick Preston, internal quality assurance lead | Train with Premier

 

To find out how you can use OneFile to deliver health and social care apprenticeships, download your delivery guide.