The partnership between Care Training East Midlands (CTEM) and Stoke House care home covers a variety of elements to support the development and success of a care home. Not only do CTEM provide a completely free recruitment service for Stoke House, CTEM are also their chosen training provider to develop staff through the NVQ.

As an employer-led organisation, CTEM simply ask Stoke House what they require from a prospective employee. Recruitment advisors working closely with students on pre-employment programmes will select the most suitable candidates for Stoke House to interview. This saves Stoke House valuable time and money spent which used to be spent on unsuccessful recruitment activities; now more time can be spent focusing on the service users.

Throughout 2008, six customers from the New Deal pre-employment programme went into work at Stoke House. The long-term partnership has continued with Stoke House and they have since employed three more learners from CTEM who were on the Young Person’s Guarantee

Mandy Clarke, Training Coordinator at Stoke House, comments that the new employees are “excellent, they have a willingness to learn with a caring nature”. Before embarking on the pre-employment training programme learners get to choose a vocational sector to develop a career in. Therefore, Mandy is safe in the knowledge that new employees are willing to work within the care sector as this was their choice when enrolling on the course.

Once employees feel settled in their new role in the care home, they continue their learning and development through the NVQ in Health and Social Care Level 2. This allows the employees to complete a qualification tailored to their job role. No time is spent off work as assessors from CTEM visit the care home and observe the individual carrying out their job role. The qualification itself takes four to six months; this gives the individual the motivation to stay in their job for a sustainable period of time.

Mandy Clarke recognises that the NVQs have been an asset to the organisation. She says, “It allows the home to provide an improved service.” Mandy didn’t find the assessors one bit intrusive. She says, “It’s actually a support to have someone else’s input into the training and development of the individuals”.

When asked to comment on the service provided by CTEM, Mandy says, “they are excellent. Any problems or issues that arise are sorted straight away”.

back to top