Q&A with Salford Foundation: Refining their Digital Strategy through Apprenticeships

We sat down with Mairi Palmer, Business Manager and Azeem Khan, Digital Support Technician at Salford Foundation to see how Azeem has been settling into his new apprenticeship. Salford Foundation are a charity that support young people and adults across the North-West and have recently transi-tioned their workforce to online systems to enable them to continue offering services throughout the Covid-19 pandemic.

Mairi, what made you choose to hire a Digital Support Technician Apprentice?
Our work as a charity is to offer opportunities to young people and adults, in Salford and all over the North-West. We as an organisation, like most other organisations, have been on a journey over the last 18 months from a digital perspective. Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, we have had to introduce new IT systems very quickly and migrate all our infrastructure to Microsoft 365. However, this comes with a need for extra support for our staff. We made the investment into new types of technology, but didn’t necessarily have the expertise within our charity to be able to develop and support staff with these technologies. The Digital Support Technician apprenticeship route was perfect as it has allowed us to bring somebody into the organisation to learn those skills with us and improve the way we work. Azeem is already doing a great job!

How has the demand in your business changed digitally and how is Azeem’s role going to change that?
It has changed enormously. Before the pandemic, we had five laptops in the organisation and 50 members of staff. Within a matter of days after the national lockdown was announced, we had to acquire enough equipment to be able to continue our services digitally. The work we do is vital - we provide services to a wide range of people in our schools and communities, from education, training and wellbeing services to supporting young people and adults affected by domestic abuse and other challenges - and all that work used to be face-to-face, which stopped immediately. It didn’t take us long to realise that what we needed for the organisation was a digital transformation, and this apprenticeship is in response to that.

What skills has Azeem developed that is going to help him succeed in his role?
A large part of the skills that Azeem has been developing is support for our staff; showing them how to collaborate online and use all the different functions of our new infrastructure more effectively. The more Azeem works with us, the more we realise the scope of what he is able to support us with, such as our telephone systems. In addition, Azeem will be developing skills related to data security - data protection is really important for the work we are involved in. He will also develop softer skills as well such as people skills, managing workload and working in an office environment.

What support did the College provide you with in order to provide Salford Foundation with a suitable match for the Digital Support role?
They were fabulous! We work with the College very closely already on other projects such as Build Salford, so we already have a great relationship with them. Louise Jones, Apprenticeship Employer Services Leader was amazing and even supported us with a levy transfer process. Mark Nuttall and his team at McDonald’s in Salford and Trafford, have supported our work for many years and they were kind enough to fund the training costs of Azeem’s apprenticeship using some of their unspent levy. We worked closely with the College Recruitment Team to manage the applicants, arrange interviews and shortlist the candidates.

How did you design the job role to match the apprenticeship standard?
We went through this in a lot of detail with the Recruitment Team; there are different pathways within the Digital Support standard, so we spoke to the College about what our needs were and what the specification was, and they helped us design Azeem’s job description before we went out to advert.

Azeem, what was your background and prior experience before starting this role?
I achieved A grades at a Sixth Form College, from there I attended University for around a month, but I didn’t enjoy it so decided to get straight into work. I was self-employed for a short while before transitioning into this apprenticeship.

What made you want to do an apprenticeship?
I chose an apprenticeship because I figured I’d get the best of both worlds. I get to train with the company and the College and at the same time get paid, so for me it was a matter of getting the relevant experience and a qualification alongside being paid – for me, I think this is the best starting point to help propel me into a career within the IT industry.

What are you hoping to achieve?
I hope to pass the apprenticeship, hopefully with a distinction. Completing this apprenticeship alongside Salford Foundation, will enable me to gain the right skills and experience to be able to progress my career to the next level.

If you would like to find out more about the Digital Apprenticeship standard, contact the apprenticeship team today on 0161 631 5555 or email apprenticeships@salfordcc.ac.uk.