After completing an Apprenticeship in health and social care, Hannah, 19, became a Community Care Worker with Hertfordshire County Council

Hannah knew she wanted to pursue a care related career and went on to study a care related course at college. It was here that her tutor suggested she went to the council’s Apprenticeship programme open day.

During the open day, Hannah realised she liked the idea of a more practical programme and was successfully accepted on a health and social care Apprenticeship.

During her Apprenticeship, with the support of a mentor, Hannah worked at a residential home and two day centres which provide support for adults with a variety of needs.

Once her 18-month programme was complete, Hannah continued to work at The Stevenage Resource Centre as an agency worker, and was later offered the job of day service support worker.

Hannah’s long-term goal is to be a social worker, and she is taking her first step towards this dream through her new role as a community care worker within the council.

Hannah has really benefited from the mixture of study and practical work experience. She found it really useful to be able to put the theory she was learning into the context of the service users she was dealing with every day. She has built up a vast amount of practical experience that she will take forward into her new role.

But most importantly, if she hadn’t completed her apprenticeship, Hannah believes she would have found it impossible to even think of becoming a social worker, which now seems to be a very real possibility in the future.

Commenting on her Apprenticeship, Hannah said: “It’s such a great programme, a real door-opener. Its set me up for following my career goal, and I would never have got there otherwise.”