JC Bird has been successful at getting on a level 6 apprenticeship programme.
He explains how he went about getting support for this in his trust:
‘I heard about the apprenticeship mainly from CSP. Since then I lobbied my workplace for any news about it. On one occasion we had our allied health professional lead sit in on one of our service meetings and she asked us to email her with any concerns.
‘I showed the video we did for support workers and asked about apprenticeships. She took note and after a few months they announced it and I applied.
‘My service manager was keen to understand how the apprenticeship worked - particularly about how my training time might be backfilled.
‘I had a meeting in which I consulted colleagues in the CSP for some views first. I showed my manager how I really wanted it, and said I will try to look how to progress my career otherwise.
‘After she had meetings with senior management, she later on said I can go ahead and they said they will support the service for the needs that may arise, although it’s a learning process as it’s new.
‘I was successful with the interviews and now I’m happily studying with the University of East London.’
Number of subscribers: 1