As a newly appointed Practice Development OT, Donna Morling-Grove set out to discover what resources and support mentors might need to succeed in their role supporting apprentices. Here she explains more about what she found, and the next steps to improving confidence and equity.
Since the launch of the occupational therapy degree apprenticeship in 2019, the number of universities offering this route into the profession has grown substantially, with over 20 higher education institutes (HEIs) now working collaboratively with employers across the UK (RCOT 2024).
As the first wave of apprentices have now graduated and started their career in occupational therapy, we can be confident that the apprenticeship is offering the workforce development that employers hoped for.
A key part of the apprenticeship is the support and guidance of a workplace mentor (IfATE 2024). Research has shown that despite the increase in apprenticeship provision, the role of the workplace mentor still remains misunderstood (Devlin and Duggan 2020).
Sevens, Nightingale and Ali (2021) reported that mentors held concerns around the quality of workplace education aligning with taught academic content and wanted to be better informed on the role of the mentor.
Other research has shown that mentors can quickly feel overwhelmed, require training in their role, with the production of resources being key to success (Rowe et al 2017).
Armed with this information, as a newly appointed Practice Development Occupational Therapist at Kent County Council, I decided to produce a handbook for mentors and apprentices.
After reviewing the literature and identifying the common problems, a survey was sent out to mentors to find out what they understood about mentoring and what support they needed.
Half the respondents felt they did not have enough information about the role of the mentor, only 17% felt they fully understood the skills, knowledge and behaviours outlined in the apprenticeship standards, and only 20% were using a mentoring model.
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The mentors recognised the importance of their role in developing the work ready skills of the apprentice, but only one mentor reported to have a systematic way of ensuring the apprentices built the skills they need, while all mentors reported to be focused on the apprentices’ wellbeing.
Most reported to be using the skills they had developed either as a practice educator or as a clinical supervisor to provide mentorship.
When speaking with the Kent County Council’s occupational therapy apprentices, the issues already highlighted seemed evident.
As a group, the support they received was variable, ranging from structured development sessions booked in on a regular basis, to no formal interactions, or ring-fenced time for mentoring. Mentors’ approaches to mentoring were based on their personal experience and skill, rather than any set requirements or model.
The survey sent to the mentors asked what resources would support them in their role. One replied: ‘I do not know what resources are available and I would love the time to research’. While another said: ‘I would welcome any resources to support me and the apprentice’.
After drawing together the mentors’ responses and the experiences of the mentees with the themes found in the literature, I decided to ‘start from scratch’, as it was clear there were different levels of experience and need.
The handbook opened with information about what mentoring is, outlining some of the key characteristics of the mentoring relationship to highlight the difference in role from supervision or practice education. This led to the types of activities and behaviours that make a mentor and also a good mentee.
A checklist was provided for mentor meetings and information given about mentor models. Prompt questions were provided to encourage the mentee to problem solve for themselves and to show the mentor how to guide the mentee through the stages of finding a solution.
Tools for mentoring were provided for both parties, with links to resources such as reflective models, skills analysis tools and the apprenticeship standards.
A month after circulating the handbook to the mentors and apprentices feedback was sought. I was surprised to find that the biggest impact had been for the apprentices rather than the mentors, perhaps because of the close alignment between the skills required for mentoring and for clinical supervision and fieldwork education.
It is also reflective of some of the mentors having completed qualifications in coaching.
20%
of mentors surveyed were using a mentoring model
One apprentice said: ‘Before receiving the handbook I thought my mentor would take the lead in the meetings… once I realised that it should be me, I felt more ownership around making sure that my work-based learning objectives were being met.
Knowing that I should set an agenda before the meeting leads me to be in control of how I want to be supported at that time and also allows me reflection time prior to meeting my mentor.’
Moving forward the handbook will be sent to all new apprentices within Kent County Council, and also used to encourage qualified occupational therapists to become mentors.
It is hoped that providing guidance, frameworks and resource will encourage more people to undertake the role with confidence and an approach that is replicated equitably across the organisation.
Devlin N, Duggan S (2020) An evaluation of nurses’ experiences of mentoring pre-registration students British Journal of Nursing, 29(5): 308-313. doi: 10.12968/bjon.2020.29.5.308. PMID: 32167827.
Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Information (IfATE) (2024) 2022 – Apprentice Panel Survey of Apprentices Report. Available at: https://bit.ly/3ZPbM4p [accessed 26 April 2024].
Royal College of Occupational Therapists (2024) Occupational therapy degree apprenticeships in England. Available at https://bit.ly/3ZKaYOc [accessed 26 April 2024].
Rowe L, Moss D, Moore N, Perrin D (2017) The challenges of managing degree apprentices in the workplace Journal of Work-Applied Management, 9(2): 185-199.
Sevens T, Nightingale J, Ali N (2021) Degree apprenticeships for the radiography profession: are clinical departments ready? Radiography, 28(1): 75-79.
Words DONNA MORLING-GROVE, Practice Development Occupational Therapist, Kent County Council [email protected]