Apprenticeships are available within both clinical and non-clinical areas across NELFT. Some of the job roles we currently run apprenticeships in include Health Support Worker, Nursing Associate, Business Administrator, Assistant Accountant, Data Analyst, Occupational Therapy, Physiotherapist and many more.

At NELFT we also support our current employees with continuing professional development opportunities where they can complete an apprenticeship in a topic that supports their current job role such as Team Leader, Senior Leader and Nursing Top Up.

We spoke to Sofiya Khan-Ringshaw, one of our Finance Apprentices within NELFT, to find out more about her experience:

'’I joined NELFT a year ago in the summer of my GCSE completion. I had heard about NELFT apprenticeships two years prior to this, and in the back of my mind I always knew I wanted to go down the apprenticeship route. I have been working from the age of 14 and after experiencing a working environment, I just knew that I thoroughly enjoyed being within a workplace. I had enjoyed school but felt as if it was holding me back from a greater potential I could achieve being in a different environment. When I found out NELFT was offering a finance apprenticeship role I was overjoyed, as finance was the route I wanted to go down. I knew it was a sign, so I applied and as luck would have it, I managed to secure a place within the finance team.

I am a finance apprentice for NELFT. In all honesty, I never saw myself working for an NHS Trust, but have found it extremely rewarding and would definitely recommend doing so to anyone leaving school. Prior to working here, when I thought of the NHS, I thought of clinical roles such as  Doctors and Nurses and not about the corporate staff who are behind the scenes helping all aspects run as smoothly as possible. Working as a corporate member of staff I have gained a great appreciation for the admin staff that work in all NHS Trusts because they work just as hard as the doctors and nurses as the planning, the time, and the effort we all put in helps support our frontline workers so they can give our patients the best care.

The conventional route is not always the route you are meant to take. Regardless of what your peers may say, you should follow your heart. University, sixth form and college all offer amazing experiences, but this does not mean you won’t have some of these experiences going down the apprenticeship route. Some of the world’s greatest minds left school before the age of 18, some notably being Charles Dickens, Thomas Edison and even Einstein himself. One of the most important lessons I have learnt being an apprentice is to lead with integrity, and then and only then will you succeed.''

For more information about NELFT apprenticeships please email apprenticeships@nelft.nhs.uk, or visit our careers website.