Compass funds important apprenticeships for St Ann's Hospice

News
18/01/2021

Compass Group UK and Ireland, the UK’s largest foodservice business, has used its apprenticeship levy to fund five apprentices at St Ann’s Hospice, Greater Manchester, one of the oldest and largest adult hospices outside of London.  

The levy transfer will fund two Apprentice Production Chefs, two Apprentice Healthcare Cleaning Operatives and one Apprentice HR qualification all taking place over a 12-18 month learning programme. This means the hospice is able to develop and up-skill five of its existing employees, providing them with an opportunity to obtain a qualification and develop their career. 

These five apprentices form part of the army of amazing key workers who have kept St Ann’s Hospice running smoothly since the pandemic started. St Ann’s provides care and support for thousands of patients and families every year from its three sites in HealdGreen, Little Hulton and The Neil Cliffe Centre at Wythenshawe Hospital, as well as via a range of community and outreach services.  It has also recently launched a range of online support services and virtual access for patients and their loved ones from across Greater Manchester and parts of Cheshire. 

St Ann’s Hospice has an excellent track record with apprentices, supporting six in 2020, one of which had successfully completed their qualification. The hospice will support a further four clinical focussed apprenticeships this year, and with the help of the Compass sponsorship, a further five Support Services development opportunities have been created to enable individuals to learn their trade. Apprenticeships play an important role at the hospice and the additional funds are a significant investment in non-clinical focused staff development. 

Rachel McMillan, Chief Executive of St Ann’s said:

“We are extremely grateful to Compass Group UK and Ireland for supporting the hospice in this way. At St Ann’s we pride ourselves on providing world-class care to patients and their loved ones, and we can only do that thanks to the amazing team of staff and volunteers that support them. These apprenticeships are a great way for us to continue to invest in the development of our teams and help us to ensure we remain an organisation of choice well into the future too.” 


Jonathan Foot, Head of Apprenticeships and Early Careers, Compass Group UK and Ireland commented:

“At Compass Group UK and Ireland we are dedicated to supporting local people and communities, so we are delighted that we have been able to use our levy to support another business in their vision to create a career pathway for their non-clinical employees. 

“St Ann’s Hospice is an unbelievable facility and offers a great opportunity for five apprentices to start their career development inculinary and facilities management. An apprenticeship supports individuals to develop the skills, knowledge and behaviours they need in the workplace and provides excellent progression opportunities, as well as improves employee retention – a win-win for apprentices and employers.” 


The apprenticeship levy fund was introduced in 2017 to create long-term and sustainable funding for apprenticeships. Compass Group is currently supporting over 300 apprentices in its own business, but has surplus levy funds, which can be used to help smaller employers, like St Ann’s Hospice, pay for the training and assessment costs of apprenticeships.