Meg Bamber, Head of Studies for Adult and Apprenticeships for Runshaw College has been attending the Apprenticeship Accelerator (founded by Bally Bhogal of LX Group Ltd and Natalie Rae of Natalie Rae Consultancy Ltd) since before its inception in 2025.
“There really are just so many large and small takeaways that I bring back each time to the Apps Ops meeting at Runshaw that help us make informed decisions that bring about positive impactful change.”
The Apprenticeship Accelerator is a best practice network of apprenticeship training providers who work together to resolve everyday apprenticeship challenges, risks and issues. Each online session lasts up to 2 hours, is delivered bi-monthly and covers apprenticeship theory, practice, worked-examples of solutions and sharing of best practice models and frameworks for application in real-time. The format is unrivalled within the apprenticeship industry, making it so more than just a webinar!
“This has supported our retention of apprentices, our confidence and ability to lean in sooner to support apprentices where there are barriers to achievement.”
Meg is a regular attendee at the AA sessions and has benefitted highly from the theoretical and practical content shared not only by the facilitators, but also by her peers from within the apprenticeship sector. She has attended sessions around Quality Improvement, increasing her knowledge and understanding around Compliance and best practice around Diagnosing Employer Needs, for example. Here are some of her key takeaways:
“One major improvement strategy that I have implemented is stronger employer engagement to ensure as a college we are fully working in partnership with our apprentice line managers. This has supported our retention of apprentices and our confidence and ability to lean in sooner to support apprentices where there are barriers to achievement. We created a Mentor Handbook as well as an Employer Handbook to ensure those workplace line managers and employers had information to hand to support them in carrying their duties to support apprentices in the workplace. Following an [employer] consultation, we delivered a Mentor Training day for Line Managers, which was impactful with the companies that engaged.”
More specifically, following attendance at the Diagnosing Employer Needs session, Meg stated:
“I also picked up on the session where we were focusing on celebrating apprenticeships – we made changes to our Annual Apprenticeship Awards Night to be bigger, better and far more prestigious. We presented awards to employers and stakeholders, as well as learners. This was an outstanding evening that was well received by all and really placed a focus on success and achievement for Adults and Apprentices.”
The benefits, impacts and rewards of attending the 2-hour Apprenticeship Accelerator sessions every 8 weeks continued as outlined below:
“The benefits are sharing best practice, the impact being there are so many takeaways from every session attended. For example, the idea to create Employer Newsletters; the idea to create videos and training clips to support apprentices and employers on how to complete important tasks relating to apprenticeships.”
“We are now holding a weekly Apps Operations meeting with 5 key managers to drive forward change and innovation within our apprenticeship programme!”
“What starts out as a small conversation within the AA forum can lead to so many ideas. There really are just so many large and small takeaways that I bring back each time to the Apps Ops meeting at Runshaw that help us make informed decisions that bring about positive impactful change. The AA forum sessions are just brilliant and I am so glad I am a member of these!”
For more information on the Apprenticeship Accelerator best practice forum, contact Bally Bhogal or Natalie Rae directly via Linkedin or join our Apprenticeship Accelerator Linkedin community via https://www.linkedin.com/company/apprenticeship-accelerator/
