3 New Apprentices Join Our Public Health Team

This September 2021, we welcomed 3 new apprentices to our Public Health Team to start their career in Public Health and a 3 years apprenticeship programme undertaking a Public Health Degree Apprenticeship. This is a new apprenticeship programme and Bristol City Council are one of the first employers to take on apprentices and enrol them into this degree programme.

Rachel Metcalfe, Public Health Programmes and Partnership Manager was dedicated to enable these opportunities and worked alongside the Bristol Apprenticeship Team, Public Health England the UWE to provide this fantastic opportunity.

The rationale behind the introduction of the apprenticeship was that we needed to recruit talent for the future in our organisation in this sector, as Rachel explains “In public health in particular, it was previously hard to attract younger people as there was no clear qualification or development route outside of a masters programme. Offering a degree level apprenticeship gives us the opportunity to provide real life work experience and a recognised qualification at the same time.’’

The 3 apprentices that were successful went through our standard apprenticeship process, they completed their online application, we then shortlisted and invited to interview and in September Sophie England, Jess Hellier and Ashley Bryant joined us and started their apprenticeship University of West of England (UWE).

How are the apprentices enjoying the experience

This is a brand new apprenticeship and being on the first cohort feels exciting as we do get the chance to give feedback and potentially shape it for apprentices in the future. There are three of us on the programme and we all work in different teams so we can share our different experiences and the projects we’re working on.’’ Sophie England.

No two days are the same here as we get the opportunity to move around and work on different projects. Some days I might be researching and other days I could be out in the community actually speaking to the people we’re trying to help. At the moment I’m delivering mental health workshops and part of that will be assessing the effectiveness of those.

A lot of my friends went to university and have graduated now but they’re wondering if that was the right choice as finding a job isn’t easy. With my job now I’m being paid, doing something I love, and I’ll still get a degree at the end. Plus, I’ll have no student debt!’’ Jess Hellier.