Chris Andreou, Innersummit
Testimonial from Chris Andreou, Managing Director of Innersummit Ltd
With the introduction of the levy many of our customers were starting to ask about the provision of bespoke apprenticeship programmes of learning for their emerging leaders. Despite running a successful training provider organisation, I was in need of some guidance as to how to make this transition, in order to ensure that the apprenticeship delivery model we proposed, was fit for purpose, and would deliver outstanding apprenticeship opportunities for both our partner organisations and their staff.
Gillian’s wealth of knowledge and experience helped us to undertake the journey in an informed way. Just getting our company registered onto the Register of Apprenticeship Providers (RoTAP) was a challenge. Gillian ensured that we had the appropriate policies and procedures in place which were unfamiliar to us as a private full-cost provider. She also helped us wade through the jargon and to understand what was required of us at every stage. Understanding what Ofsted would be looking for within our first monitoring visit and beyond was an eye opener. So many other things to consider, for example effective safeguarding arrangements, ensuring that our employers understood their vital role in working in synergy with us to deliver a high-quality apprenticeship and ensuring that we had a focus on the continued development of apprentices’ literacy and numeracy skills as part of the programme were all explored. Gillian provided advice, guidance and constructive feedback all along the way.
In addition to the above, Gillian provided excellent training in effective classroom practice to ensure that our delivery model was fit for purpose. Ensuring that we met the principles of outstanding teaching, learning and assessment was very important to me and her support in this respect was extremely helpful to the organisation and my team.
Gillian’s support and guidance has been invaluable in helping us to realise our vision of becoming a provider of bespoke and high-quality leadership, management and business apprenticeships. For further details please see https://www.innersummit.co.uk