Julie Young

Level 2 Adult Care Worker

I am now a senior healthcare assistant; I gained this new job role whilst working towards my apprenticeship. This now means I have the extra responsibility of making sure my colleagues are competent carrying out their role whilst on shift, as I am their main port of call whilst on shift.

I wanted to do the apprenticeship as I am always looking at how I can further myself within my knowledge and I felt that before my promotion to senior, I was selected on numerous occasions to stand in that role, which reflected on how well I support my colleagues whilst on shift with them. This gave me the confidence to start the apprenticeship, although some barriers I had with exam conditions and maths and English.

I learnt lots of different things whilst on the apprenticeship, information and legislation within health and social care change all the time so, it was great to refresh my memory and take on new knowledge. I think, when you do your job, you do it without thinking what you are doing so, the apprenticeship helped me reflect and reflect on my practices. Not one day in care is the same, the apprenticeship has definitely supported me in my job role in terms of updated knowledge and guidance.

As part of my apprenticeship I completed functional skills, I am severely dyslexic so, I did naturally find this a barrier and an obstacle, at times this did put me off completing a qualification and I often avoided this but I never once believed I could achieve it, but I did! With the support of my assessor Becky, I gained a Level 1 in both English and Maths. I used BKSB online to help me with my revision.

I enjoyed conducting my own research when tasked to complete assessments and also reading the resources given to me, Becky, my assessor was great when I needed support. The apprenticeship got my mind ticking again and I really did enjoy studying. Possibly in the future I will opt to do a higher level apprenticeship.