Life as a young apprentice at John Ruskin college
15th January 2010
Emily Cole is from St Andrews school and is released two days a week to undertake a Young Apprenticeship scheme at John Ruskin College. This challenging programme means that for 3 days a week she is working on her GCSE’s, 1 day at JRC doing a first Diploma in Health and Social Care (worth 4 GCSE’s) and one day a week in placement. She first joined the college in September 2008 at age of 14 and completes her course this May 2010.In addition Emily has undertaken a BTEC Award in Nutrition Awareness and a BTEC Certificate in Employability skills. At JRC alone she will have achieved around 6 GCS’s at a good level.
Emily has increased her prospects for further education as well as a promising career after college after taking part in 2 out of 3 placements to be completed as part of her Health and Social Care course. Emily attended her first work placement at Caterham Dean Hospital (when she was just 14 years) where she worked along side the community Matron; Caroline Burns, who commented on Emily’s professionalism by saying:
“Emily was very polite, thoughtful and appropriate towards the clients. She acted in a mature way and seemed to learn a lot during her placement, including confidence and how to deal with elderly & disabled patients. Emily managed to calm down one lady with severe dementia even before the staff did. She is a very kind and caring young lady who would do very well in the caring profession”.
Emily’s second placement was at Beddington Infants School. Mrs Shepard (Emily’s work place supervisor and classroom teacher) commented on Emily’s positive attitude by saying:
“Emily is a lovely girl and very mature for her age. She did everything asked of her and was very professional. She was always polite and friendly with the children and staff members alike. She was kind and caring towards the children but didn’t get too ‘chummy’ with them; they regarded her as an authority figure and respected her. Emily will do well in whatever she does but would be well suited to working with children”.
Emily would like to become an Occupational Therapist either working with children or those injured during conflicts and wars.
Whatever Emily’s career path we at John Ruskin believe she most definitely has a bright future which is a result of her enthusiasm, commitment and continuous hard work. The staff who teach Emily comment that Emily “epitomizes what the YA programme is about. Emily reflects the positive John Ruskin ethos. She has demonstrated the ability to be a hard worker, act professionally in placement and develop skills that will be much needed for the future of Health and Social Care. We are very proud of her”
Emily added a short piece about her time at John Ruskin by saying:
“All my teachers have been very supportive and encouraged me and pushed me to go a step further. I really enjoyed my placements as they taught me so many new and invaluable skills which are going to help me in my future career.”