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Hospice Receptionist first to complete Apprenticeship

  • 10 January 2020

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Business Administration, Level 3 Apprenticeship

Ginette (Ginnie) Northmore, Education Receptionist, was congratulated recently as the first person to complete and pass an apprenticeship with Arthur Rank Hospice Charity with the Government Levy. It took Ginnie just 18 months to complete the Business Administration, Level 3, apprenticeship in December 2019, which consisted of 8 practical workshops, presentations and online modules (which included Principles of Communication, Resolving Administrative problems and Principles of Administration).

Support for the Apprenticeship

She was supported by her assessor at the Lighthouse Group in Ipswich and Louise Higgins, Business Development Officer, at the Charity. Completing the apprenticeship has also given Ginnie the motivation for continued career development as she is hoping to study for a certificate in Customer Services.

Ginnie commented:

“I was lucky enough to be given the opportunity by the Hospice to undertake an apprenticeship and to have the support of my colleagues along the way. Completing this apprenticeship helped me to grow personally and professionally within my administrator role and I look forward to seeing the impact of this both in my role at the Hospice and throughout my career.”

Gemma Manning, HR Director at Arthur Rank Hospice Charity explained more:

“Since April 2017, the Charity has contributed almost £20k to the apprenticeship levy (topped up to £22k by the government contribution). Four colleagues are undertaking courses funded by the levy in a variety of roles including administration, nursing and management.

Ginnie is the first of these to complete her studies and we are immensely proud of her, it has been a pleasure to see her confidence and skills grow during her apprenticeship and we join her in celebrating this achievement.

In October 2018 the Charity was recognised as being one of the best employers in the Eastern region, having achieved gold accreditation thanks to exceptional results in a staff survey and as a Charity and we are always looking at how to maximise our precious resources.

I am pleased to report that we have spent £19k from the levy to support the education of our existing colleagues.

We have ambitious plans to extend our apprenticeship offering to new colleagues in brand new roles for the Charity, reflecting our desire to continually reshape and develop our workforce to meet the needs of our service.

We are very excited to be advertising for a new role in Ginnie’s own team for an Education and Conference Assistant Apprentice and expect to advertise in the weeks ahead for further opportunities in administration and catering”.

Anyone who is interested in finding out more should contact the HR office on 01223 675865.

If you are interested in applying for any of these roles please see https://www.arhc.org.uk/join-us/work-for-us/vacancy-details/

The Education and Conference Centre, where Ginnie is based, is part of the award winning building which enables both internal and external staff and businesses to benefit from the light and airy space for meetings, conferences, seminars and training.

If you would like to know more about the Education and Conference Centre and/or would like to hire the space please see https://www.arhc.org.uk/professionals/education-training/