It has been another interesting year for health sector apprenticeships and a busy year at Skills for Health and Health Education England supporting the sector in delivering quality apprenticeships.
As the year draws to a close, it’s a great opportunity to take a look back over what has been achieved in 2022.
The HASO Website
In May, HASO celebrated its 5th anniversary! Created in May 2017, HASO has continued to evolve over the past five years providing apprenticeship resources and guidance for the health sector. Here are just some of the highlights:
In May, our new Job Families Section was launched. This section organises apprenticeship standards into the context of the job family to which they belong. Check out some of the pages in this section such as Nursing, Facilities & Estates, Healthcare Science and Allied Health Professionals. Each page gives an overview of the area, lists the available related apprenticeship standards and also has resources and case studies.
In August, a new Skills for Life section was launched making it easier for employers to navigate this important area. The original Skills for Life section was launched in June 2020 and we were delighted to upgrade this section with a new layout and additional resources.
In October we launched a new Case Study Search Tool. HASO has a large library of handy case studies for employers to download and use and the new tool lets you easily search for any case study on HASO. It lets you search by apprentice name, employer name, apprenticeship standard or by areas such as Nursing or Human Resources.
New Resources
In February we celebrated National Apprenticeship Week and launched 5 Apprenticeship Standards factsheets, we have since launched several more. These can be found here, they show the variety of apprenticeship standards available in occupations such as Nursing, Ambulance Services, Allied Health Professions, Radiography and Healthcare Science.
During the year we published a number of Facilities and Estates case studies on HASO to highlight this vital area. Click here to read some of them.
In May as part of International HR Day we published case studies to highlight the wide range of apprenticeships available in this area. Click here to view these case studies.
Green Careers Week took place in November. Green Careers Week was launched by National Careers Week.
To celebrate Green Careers Week, HASO published some information packs that highlight some of the fantastic “Sustainability” apprenticeships in the Facilities and Estates area. We also published flyers to provide an overview of Facilities and Estates management apprenticeships. Click here to view these resources.
The Care Certificate is used by Health and Care organisations all over the country and is an identified set of standards that Health and Care professionals adhere to in their daily working life. Health Education England took the opportunity on December 5th 2022 to celebrate the Care Certificate and showcase its place in ensuring high quality patient care. Check out the Care Certificate Celebration Day blog or Care Certificate Celebration Day Case Studies.
Apprenticeship Standards – new and revised
In 2022 Skills for Health facilitated the development of these new apprenticeship standards:
Other standards and/or end point assessments were revised:
- Level 2 Healthcare Support Worker
- Level 3 Senior Healthcare Support Worker
- Level 3 Dental Nurse
- Level 4 Orthodontic Therapist
- Level 5 Healthcare Assistant Practitioner
- Level 6 Operating Department Practitioner
But there is still plenty to do to ensure that the sector has access to a comprehensive range of apprenticeships that reflect up to date practice, which means that other standards are still in development/review:
- Level 3 Senior Healthcare Support Worker – the addition of a new option for Diagnostic Imaging Support
- Level 6 Dental Hygienist
- Level 7 Specialist Community Public Health Nurse (NMC 2022)
- Level 7 Community Nurse Specialist Practice (NMC 2022)
And to ensure they mirror the Health and Care Professions Council Standards of Proficiency (2022) all of these standards are in the process of being updated
- Level 7 Arts Therapist (Degree)
- Level 7 Clinical Scientist
- Level 6 Diagnostic Radiographer (Degree)
- Level 6 Dietitian (Degree)
- Level 6 Occupational Therapist (Degree)
- Level 6 Operating Department Practitioner (Degree)
- Level 6 Paramedic (Degree)
- Level 6 Physiotherapist (Degree)
- Level 6 Podiatrist (Degree)
- Level 6 Prosthetist and Orthotist (Degree)
- Level 6 Speech and Language Therapist (Degree)
- Level 6 Therapeutic Radiographer (Degree)
Looking forward to 2023 we will continue to develop and provide resources to help employers deliver quality apprenticeships. We will update HASO making it a user friendly website that continues to be the best place to navigate apprenticeships in the health sector.