Social Work England welcomes apprentice into its boardroom

Social Work England has welcomed an apprentice into its boardroom as part of a national programme to enable more people to play their part on public boards.

The organisation, which regulates social workers in England, has agreed to be a host board as part of the Boardroom Apprenticeship Scheme sponsored by the Department for Levelling up, Housing and Communities. Boardroom Apprentice is a 12-month unique board learning, development and placement programme which enables people who would like to serve on a board, but who may not normally get the opportunity, to gain experience.

The new apprentice is Jennifer Waterhouse, who works as a Regeneration Manager at the Crown Estate in London. Jennifer, who recently attended her first board meeting, said,

“I applied to be a Boardroom Apprentice to learn new skills, meet new people and to hopefully become a board member in the future.

“While I was growing up, my mother worked as a headteacher in a socially deprived area of London. I saw at first hand the strain put on the education system to support families and the impact that teachers and social workers could have on their lives. I really believe that a positive influence and strong support can change the course of someone’s life. I am fascinated to see the work that Social Work England do to aid this.”

Social Work England will provide Jennifer with practical hands-on experience as a board level observer. She will receive in-depth learning opportunities and support during the year, as well as a dedicated point of contact from its existing board members.

Chief Executive Colum Conway said,

“We were really pleased to be selected to host a Boardroom Apprentice and hope we can learn as much from the experience as Jennifer will learn from her time with us.”

The Boardroom Apprentice programme aims to: 

• create a diverse pool of capable board ready board members
• provide a sustainable pool of capable board ready board members
• enable practical boardroom experience for aspiring board members
• provide the transfer of knowledge, skills and experience to aspiring board members
• increase the knowledge and awareness of the role of board members

You can read more about the role of the Social Work England board in our about us section. You can find out more about the programme on the Boardroom Apprentice website.