After viewing several universities, Jodie Crowfoot decided at 18 that higher education wasn’t for her and decided to apply for a two year business administration apprenticeship with Dorset Council.
“I also had a part-time job with Argos and I liked earning money, so felt this was a good route for me.”
She worked in the Chief Executive’s office under former DC boss David Jenkins, providing general secretarial support, before moving to Children’s Services.
Passing with distinction, Jodie had to provide evidence-based work, which included presentations and assignments, followed by a discussion with an assessor.
“I think the apprenticeship gave me structure and an understanding of why you were doing different things. It also gave me confidence and it was great to be doing this with a peer group of 20 other apprentices. We were able to ask one another questions, help each other out. One of my best friends is someone who was on that apprentice course and, like me, she still works at Dorset Council.”
After working in Children’s Services, Jodie moved to become a project support officer in IT and then moved to the Dorset Care Record partnership support officer in 2017. She organised working group and programme board meetings, wrote up minutes and provided general admin duties.
A year later she embarked on her second apprenticeship, an 18-month stint to become a Level 4 Project Manager. To do this, she needed to do several mini projects, which included leading on the maternity pathway and the fledgling citizen portal.
Again, passing with distinction in September 2019, Jodie has now become lead project manager for the DCR, working with Our Dorset partners across health and social care. She feels she’s learnt a lot of new skills from her second apprenticeship: “I’ve learnt to communicate better, understanding how to work with different people. I am also much more concise and clearer when speaking and can confidently present, although lockdown and the move to Teams, has certainly helped.”
In June, she will have completed her BA Hons (Open) Degree at the Open University, where she has been studying in her own time a mixture of history and English, and she hopes this will open further management roles at the council.
She feels she hasn’t missed out on university life: “Having the experience of work has reflected better on my application form compared to going to university for 3 years. I’ve got lots of work experience under my belt.”
And the enjoyment of her apprenticeships has led Jodie to mentor the DCR’s first apprentice, who is starting as a partnership support officer during National Apprentice Week!
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