The education watchdog inspected Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust (BHRUT) in January for its apprenticeship and career hub and has now published the results of the visit.
BHRUT runs both Queen’s in Romford and King George in Goodmayes, employing around 8,500 people.
The trust became a provider of apprenticeships in 2022, offering apprenticeships to individuals from other organisations from October last year.
At the time of the visit, there were 208 apprentices registered.
Apprenticeships formed one of five inspection categories, alongside quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, and leadership and management.
BHRUT received a ‘good’ rating in all five areas.
The trust received praise from Ofsted about the support given to apprentices.
Inspectors observed that apprentices “quickly learn the skills they need to become effective members of their departments”, with the majority of apprentices going on to achieve their apprenticeship.
Training is said to be well established, with BHRUT ensuring its apprentices have a “thorough” foundation knowledge before moving onto more complex training.
Apprentices are encouraged to reflect on their work and what they have learnt through group discussions, inspectors found.
However, they noted there was some room for improvement in areas such as reviews and marking of mock examinations.
Ofsted reported that: “In a few instances, coaches do not correct apprentices’ spelling and punctuation or show them how to identify errors, resulting in apprentices continuously making the same mistakes in their written work.”
They also noted that reviews with apprentices are not being scheduled consistently well enough, with some coaches failing to identify well enough areas that apprentices need to develop in.
Lesley Roberts, head of BHRUT’s apprenticeship and career hub, said: “We’re really happy and the whole team feel it’s a job well done.
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“Since launching the hub in February 2023 we’re still growing and developing and striving to do better all the time. This (report) proves we have a lot to offer.
“Our leadership is very invested in the hub and how it is helping our staff gain the skills to develop their careers.
“We’ve increased apprenticeship roles by over 100 since the hub started, offering lots of new jobs to local residents, some of whom come to us with no healthcare background and are soon on their way to developing successful careers.”
