"I have grown in confidence, learned a lot of new skills and feel really happy in my role."

I took part in a supported internship with Newcastle Project Choice from September 2017 to July 2018. This internship allowed me to gain work experience in different roles at Freeman Hospital and the Royal Victoria Infirmary.  

I was very nervous at the beginning but by the end of the internship, I’d grown a lot in confidence, overcome my fear of ward-based environments and felt ready to get interviewed for an apprenticeship in the NHS. 

Towards the end of my internship, the programme managers helped me with interview techniques and practice questions in mock interviews. This included printing off job descriptions from the NHS Jobs website and using them to write down potential questions for interviews. 

After setting up an account with NHS Jobs and an alert for business admin apprenticeships, I applied for an admin apprenticeship at Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust. I was successful in my interview and started the apprenticeship induction in June 2019.  

My roles and responsibilities in the learning and development department included putting together induction packs for cohorts of new apprentices coming into the trust, preparing resources for teaching sessions and saving the details of class attendances in teaching sessions onto the trust’s Electronic Staff Record (ESR) system.  

The learning and development team are very supportive of me. I have grown in confidence, learned a lot of new skills and feel really happy in my role. 

The most challenging part of my role as an apprentice is when I have to multitask between two or more different tasks such as printing, scanning, laminating and photocopying.  

I am part of a choir that rehearses at Jesmond United Reformed Church every Wednesday evening. I perform songs with the choir at concerts several times a year. Doing this has helped me a lot with making friends and building team working skills.  

After my apprenticeship, I would like to go into a band 2 role in clinical coding or health records within the trust. 

My tips for others are to take whatever opportunities you can with an apprenticeship. Always be open to different opportunities such as working in different departments in the NHS, as this allows you to gain experience.