Avery Healthcare have notched up yet another first for the adult social care sector with the official Accreditation of their Advanced Senior Carer (ASC) Training Programme by City & Guilds. The course enables senior carers to extend their skills and to further support and assist nurses to ensure that high quality care is provided for residents.
City & Guilds (C&G) is the leading skills development organisation, providing services to training providers, employers, and trainees across a variety of sectors to meet the needs of today’s workplace. C&G qualifications are valued by employers across the world, helping individuals develop their talents and abilities for career progression.
Avery’s ASC Programme is at the leading edge of sector development, helping to raise standards in care and enhancing the knowledge and skills of senior carers to take on a specific nurse support role. It provides a clear career pathway for Senior Carers to progress, including a route towards the new Nursing Associate role.
The intensive five-month programme is delivered on a blended learning basis, and is comprised of nine clinical modules and two management modules. A wide range of resources support the learner, with the focus on practical hands-on training, work-based competencies and evidence-based practice on all modules. Course graduates clearly demonstrate increased practical and leadership skills along with greater confidence, freeing up nurses for more advanced roles and to spend more time supporting residents with complex needs.
Achieving City & Guilds Accreditation requires a consistently high standard of performance and quality that demonstrates to learners, customers, other professionals and stakeholders alike the excellence and relevance of the Avery Healthcare ASC Programme. C&G has provided Avery with invaluable industry benchmarking and support to maximise the value of its programme.
All the programme trainers are sector experienced and hold a formal Adult Teacher Training qualification. They create an effective learning environment, ensuring a wide range of support for learners including teaching, mentoring, marking, feedback and quality assurance processes.
In their report, the External Quality Assessor from C&G noted the positive impact that the programme had to the business on both care standards and the recruitment and retention of staff. They also noted that excellent resources were made available to trainers and learners.
Shelley Parker-Wain, Head of Training and Development at Avery Healthcare confirmed that they plan to increase the number of Advanced Carer graduates they develop in future. She stated, “I am delighted that City & Guilds recognise the value of our Advanced Senior Carers Programme. It is very rewarding to see learners flourish, improving their skills and knowledge, which will further enhance the high standard of care delivery to our residents. Our Senior Carers can draw confidence from this Accreditation, that the programme is of a high standard, and that it will develop them further on a solid career pathway within Avery. This valuable partnership working with the awarding body will continue for many years, enabling many more learners to achieve their career goals and for the standards of our care to improve”.
