PMA Primary Care Administrator– Incorporating Business Administration Level 3 Apprenticeship Standard and City & Guilds Level 3 in Business Administration

PMA are delighted to introduce a new course based on Business Administration Level 3 Apprenticeship Standard and City & Guilds Level 3 in Business Administration.

Employers will have the choice of focusing on a Medical Administrators qualification or a GP Assistant, depending on the needs and workforce skills-base of their practice. Both will include a highly transferable set of skills built around the core elements of Business Administration such as communication, organisation, decision-making, interpretation of information and IT skills.

The Medical Administrator will include organisational and functional processes, medical terminology, practice documentation and interpretation of clinical correspondence, coding, signposting and liaison with the integrated care team.

The GP Assistant will include much of the administrative support above but also incorporate elements of clinical support.

Fees

This apprenticeship is 95% government-funded with a 5% employer co-investment. Please call or email for more information.

If you are an employer with a pay bill over £3 million each year, you will automatically be paying into the apprenticeship Levy. Please call or email for more information.

Further funding information can be found here.

Induction

Overview

GP Assistant Topics:

12. Routine clinical tasks
13. Preparation of patients to see GP including history of presenting problem
14. Completion of basic(non-opinion) forms
15. Liaising with various healthcare organisations, active signposting
16. Arranging appointments, reviews and simple referrals
17. Health promotion

Course Delivery

This will include a wide range of teaching and learning techniques and styles including one-to-one coaching, discussions and teaching, observations, practical assessments, mentoring, independent research and e-learning. The assigned PMA Tutor/Assessor will use online face-to-face platforms such as Zoom/MS Teams/FaceTime/Skype, as well as periodic workplace visits.

Learners will have access to Aptem, our e-portfolio system that supports monitoring progression throughout the apprenticeship.  It is the central system that keeps track of learner assignments, and evidence and holds resources that will support learners to complete the apprenticeship.

Line managers will be key drivers in learner development, importantly in agreeing the unique learning plan and keeping abreast of progress at every step.

Functional Skills

Functional Skills are nationally recognised qualifications in English and maths.  They are part of a government initiative and designed to improve literacy and numeracy skills across the workforce.  Due to this, Functional Skills are a mandatory part of Apprenticeship Standards.  Anyone enrolling in an Apprenticeship must complete Functional Skills English and Functional Skills maths unless they have already achieved them previously at Level 2 or have GCSEs (or equivalent) in both subjects at Grade C or above.  Certificates must be presented as evidence before enrolment if this is the case, failure to do so will result in learners having to complete Functional Skills.

In order to support you in completing Functional Skills, PMA will undertake an initial assessment and diagnostic assessment which will enable its specialist tutors to identify which areas to focus on with you and this will form the basis of a personalised learning plan.

It is important to bear in mind that Functional Skills do require apprentices to sit formal examinations.  The team will support you with exam techniques alongside your learning plan and will arrange for the examinations to take place at your workplace.

If you are undertaking a Level 2 Apprenticeship, you are required to complete Functional Skills English and maths at Level 1.  If however, you complete Functional Skills early, it is a government requirement for PMA to upskill you to Level 2 Functional Skills.  If you are undertaking an Apprenticeship at Level 3 or higher, then you will automatically be enrolled in Level 2 Functional Skills.

End Point Assessment (EPA)

EPA is the name given to a series of tests that an apprentice must complete at the end of their apprenticeship in order to receive their certificate. The EPA confirms apprentices are capable of undertaking the job that they have been training to do.  These tests are undertaken with an external organisation (known as an end point assessment organisation) to remove any bias from the examination process.  The employer will choose the end point assessment organisation and PMA will support them to obtain information pertinent to this if needed.

When apprentices enrol on to an apprenticeship, they study various units covering a wide range of relevant topics for their job enhancing their knowledge, skills and behaviours. This is often referred to as being ‘on programme’ and apprentices must complete all of the mandatory components of this including Functional Skills where appropriate.

Once this is completed, it is at this point the employer, after discussion with their apprentice and PMA, ‘signs off’ their apprentice as ready for EPA. This decision process is known as the ‘gateway’ to End Point Assessment.

The apprentice must be assessed by a minimum of 2 different assessment methods and the methods used will be the ones most relevant to the job.