STAR(R) Manager partners with Qdos Training to supercharge UK management capability through apprenticeships

Qdos Training Ltd and Notion, the performance improvement consultancy behind the multi-award-winning management transformation programme STAR® Manager, have been working together to launch a range of management and leadership apprenticeships. These will be the first in the UK to fully embed the STAR® Manager programme and management approach into selected Level 3 and 5 management and leadership apprenticeships. 

The new apprenticeships will offer a richer learning journey by integrating Notion’s STAR^® Manager online development programme into the already successful apprenticeships, enabling learners to develop their management knowledge, and cultivate through practice a modern set of management and leadership behaviours.

Speaking of the partnership, Notion’s Chief Operating Officer, Laura Ashley-Timms, said:

“We’ve always wanted to partner with a quality apprenticeship provider because we see apprenticeships as a powerful way of unlocking untapped talent and potential within organisations of all types. Qdos Training is an exceptional provider and has a very impressive programme completion rate.

Deborah Johnson, engagement director at Qdos Training, says of the partnership:

“We share Notion’s absolute passion to create the managers of the future. Most of us are ‘accidental managers’, and may not have ever been shown how to manage people let alone learned how to communicate in a way that invites the highest levels of collaboration in the workplace. STAR® Manager is a unique approach that enables our apprentices to put into practice the people management and leadership theories they’re learning. The programme enables them to be more than just managers and instead become brilliant people leaders.”

The partnership is initially focused on three apprenticeship programmes, Level 3 Team Leader / Supervisor, Level 5 Operations / Department Manager, and Level 5 Diploma in Leadership and Management for Adult Care.”

And Laura believes that improving management capability in these areas is likely to have a significant impact.

“These areas are strategically important for the UK economy and for UK society as a whole. Creating more and better managers, especially in the adult care sector, has the potential to relieve pressure on the NHS, and provide tangible benefits very quickly to the UK economy.”

“The Care Quality Commission (CQC) now requires a specific ratio of manager level staff to patients in each care setting. But there is a shortage of care workers with the required Level 5 Diploma in Leadership and Management for Adult Care. This reduces capacity in care settings, which means hospitals are unable to discharge patients into those appropriate care settings, which increases demand for NHS beds. If more care workers were able to access that qualification via an apprenticeship, it would increase care setting capacity and alleviate pressure on the NHS.”

STAR^® Manager was recently subjected to one of the largest academic studies of its type. The study, carried out by the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and the Government’s Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, found statistically significant proof that the programme improves retention rates and transforms management capability at scale in as little as six months.