This week (28th September) marks the beginning of the Registered Nursing Apprenticeship Programme at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals.
This is an exciting 18 month programme which enables Assistant Practitioners and Nursing Associates, as well as healthcare assistants with previous health related degrees, to become Registered Adult Nurses.
This programme runs in collaboration with Northumbria University and is validated by the NMC. It is open to candidates across the Lancashire and South Cumbria ICS and taught on site at The Health Academy at Royal Preston Hospital.
Apprentices will benefit from a wide range of student support from both Northumbria University and Lancashire Teaching Hospitals, being able to access student study and mental health support virtually from the University and face to face support in Trust from our learner support team and library services. The cohorts are small and the programme follows a work based model of study split between placement, theory sessions and self-directed study.
For the first 12 months, apprentices will be paid an apprenticeship salary, followed by minimum wage for their final 6 months on the programme.
As this is an apprenticeship your course fees will be paid in full which enables you to qualify without any student debt.
Talking about the apprenticeships, Programme Lead, Joanne Scarborough, said: “It has been particularly challenging to set up a new programme during a pandemic. At the height of the Coronavirus outbreak in May, we completed a successful NMC validation via Microsoft Teams.
“Considering this was at a time where University buildings were closed and education teams working on the project were redeployed across the Trust to Nursing and administration roles, we were able to complete this and set about interviewing and accepting staff onto the programme.
“We conducted virtual meetings with the teams in Northumbria University, interviewed online and supported candidates in completing qualifications to gain a place on the first cohort. The challenges will continue into the programme with extra safety requirements when teaching face-to-face and online learning becoming a regular part of the programme.”
Good luck to our cohort of 8 who will be qualifying in March 2022!
For more information on this programme and to apply for a place in the next cohort commencing early 2021 please follow this link to NHS jobs.
Please feel free to contact the programme lead Jo Scarborough via email at joanne.scarborough@lthtr.nhs.uk
Virtual information sessions are also available to book onto. To find out more about this, please email study.nursing@lthtr.nhs.uk
