The Most Issue 2

The last eight months have been nothing short of a bizarre. Rewind back to February when we were just hearing of the Coronavirus and the terrible affects it was having across international waters - to now, where the nation has had to come together to fight the ‘pandemic’ and new terms such as ‘furlough’, ‘social distancing’ and ‘bubbles’ are part of our everyday vocabulary. And whilst we are still working with this prevalent disease in our day to day lives, life does still continue. Here, a few of our employer partners and apprentices share with us how they managed through the pandemic and how they continue to support each other through a time of economic uncertainty. Matthew – Level 3 Infrastructure Technician apprentice at Citadel Tech My apprenticeship has been postponed since the beginning of lockdown; however, my tutor has been keeping in touch to check on how we are doing and prior to coronavirus, I was working hard to complete my apprenticeship. My tutor has been helpful and supportive, in which his teaching methods have really benefited my learning style. I have continued to work for Citadel Tech since we went into lockdown and it has helped benefit me to continue learning and improving each day. Since we are a business that provides hosted desktops, we have easily been able to transition working from home and I have been able to continue working at the same level as before. Carol Marquis, Staff Administration Manager at PSM Medical Group When news of the pandemic hit we had to make a sudden change to the way our staff worked and in addition to the way we communicated and consulted with our patients. Our Preston’s College apprentice, Charlotte was given the opportunity to work from home (as were all other members of staff for whom this was a possibility). Charlotte chose this option and worked from home for around 10 weeks. She has since told us that she initially thought this would be harder than it actually turned out to be. She felt that this was because she had excellent support both from the college and the Practice - which is so good to hear. We allowed Charlotte to work flexibly and to spread her hours over the week as, in common with many other members of staff, she found it to be ‘more tiring’ when working from home. Charlotte reports that she has continued to ‘feel in touch’ mainly due to ‘Practice briefings’ and continued training by both the Practice and Preston’s College. Both Preston’s College and PSM Medical Group continued training Charlotte. Training has been delivered by ‘Microsoft Teams’. We very quickly became used to delivering training in this way and Charlotte continued to impress us with her keenness to learn and willingness to adapt. | 20