Social care apprenticeships to be bolstered after trailblazing success

Two social care apprenticeship standards have been approved by the Minister of State for Skills and Equalities, Nick Boles, after a successful bid by an Apprenticeship Trailblazer group.

The group, which comprises an extensive range of public and private sector providers, including domiciliary and residential companies large and small, is headed by Woodford Homecare managing director Helen Wilcox, who is optimistic that this government recognition will allow many budding care sector careers to flourish.

She comments: “Employers will welcome this recognition of the importance of apprenticeships in developing the skills and knowledge of the adult care workforce that will help those workers develop long term and rewarding careers supporting people who need care and support in our communities.

“Employers have played the lead role in developing these standards so that they are fit for purpose, and we can now be confident we can continue to deliver quality apprenticeships in a vibrant and growing sector.”

In response, work has now begun on establishing an assessment strategy for the two newly-approved standards, which are Adult Care Worker and Lead Adult Care Worker and will meet QCF levels 2 and 3.

Workforce strategy developers Skills for Care will play a key role in approving the new strategy and ensuring planning for the delivery of the first Apprenticeships, while two further standards for staff trained to QCF levels 4 and 5 are also in development.

Chief executive Sharon Allen says: “We have been delighted to be asked to play a supporting role to the project and anticipate playing a future role in engaging employers with the new standards to maintain the already high levels of Apprenticeship take-up across the adult care sector.”

Skills Minister Nick Boles comments: “I congratulate members of the Adult Care Trailblazer on their involvement in designing the new apprenticeship standards, which we have published today. I am proud to say that through working with leading employers, we have now reached our target of creating two million apprentices since 2010. However two million is just the start. I want more employers to follow suit and start making apprentices a key part of their growth strategy.”