In good hands: The Apprenticeship Team at Salford City College take great ‘care’ of their clients

14 January 2019 

As a registered nurse, Sue Hilton was always determined to provide the highest quality of care for her patients. Now, as Apprenticeship Delivery Leader for Health, Social Care and Childcare she is equally determined to ensure that her team deliver the highest calibre of care apprenticeships. As Apprenticeship Delivery Leader, Sue is responsible for leading a team of training assessors, delivering care apprenticeships to a large and growing number of organisations across the North West. The team have a wealth of experience across different care settings and are all passionate about training the future workforce. Over 152,000 people across Greater Manchester work in care roles, making it the second biggest sector for employment. More than 5,000 different organisations employ those people and 94% of them regularly use training providers, like the college, to develop their staff. Sue and her team support around 400 apprentices every year from within the sector ensuring they have the support they need to develop their careers. The team deliver outstanding provision. In 2016-17 their success rates were exceptional, with 87% of all of the apprentices achieving, this is around 20% higher than the national average and places them amongst the elite providers in this area. Why have they seen so much success? They take great pride in developing trusted relationships with the employer clients they support. Sue said: “We are passionate about supporting the companies we work with. I have worked in care and so have my team. We all understand the pressures organisations are under to provide a brilliant care service, so we are the best people to support them. “In fact, I and most of my team have held supervisor and/or management posts whilst working in care, so we absolutely recognise how important it is to have talented, compassionate and motivated staff. Every day we work hard to ensure we support our clients with this.” In support of this is one of the college’s newest employer clients, Wigan Council. Following a successful tendering process over the summer, Wigan Council have committed to supporting 80 apprentices on either level 2 or level 3 apprenticeship programmes. Sue and her team have already enrolled over 30 apprentices onto programmes and are currently on the hunt for more talent. Alison Hatch, Assistant Business Partner at Wigan Council, said: “Throughout the procurement process we met some exceptional providers. But I have to say, when we met Sue and were introduced to her team, they quickly became our first choice. They are clearly passionate to deliver a brilliant service and this is backed up by their successful outcomes in recent years.” Debbie Ward, Head of Apprenticeships and Partnerships for Apprenticeships at Salford City College added: “across all of our apprenticeship delivery and support functions we have brilliant people. Sue and her team epitomise this. They are enthusiastic, hardworking and committed to ensuring the quality of provision they offer is outstanding.”

If you are interested in hiring an apprentice, or becoming one, please contact the team on 0161 631 5555.