The voluntary and community sector plays a vital role in reaching those often left behind — offering care, connection, and support where it’s needed most. Apprenticeships offer a powerful way to strengthen this work from within: building confidence, skills, and sustainability across your team, while keeping values at the centre.
Apprenticeships in the VCS reinforce the sector’s strengths: relationship-building, inclusivity, cultural relevance, and working with lived experience. They are more than workforce development – they are a way to build resilient, skilled teams that reflect and serve their communities
TPC Health understand the contribution that those working in the voluntary and community sector make to health and care.
Understanding the Voluntary and Community Sector Context
We recognise that the Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS) plays a vital role in reaching people who often fall through the gaps in traditional services. It is flexible, grassroots-led, and deeply relational — but often operates under funding pressures and short-term contracts. Staff and volunteers frequently juggle multiple roles, delivering personalised, compassionate support with limited resources. Apprenticeships in the VCS reinforce the sector’s strengths: relationship-building, inclusivity, cultural relevance, and working with lived experience. They are more than workforce development – they are a way to build resilient, skilled teams that reflect and serve their communities
The Increasing Importance of Integration
As health and care systems move toward place-based and integrated working, VCS organisations are essential partners. Development must recognise their unique strengths — such as cultural competency, lived experience, and local trust — while supporting consistency and confidence when working alongside statutory services. Embedding coaching, trauma-informed, and asset-based approaches helps staff maintain boundaries, build resilience, and deliver care that reflects community values.
Current Challenges in Practice
Many in the VCS face challenges with role clarity, inconsistent access to supervision, and limited development pathways. Time and funding constraints often mean staff miss out on learning opportunities that would strengthen their impact and wellbeing. Volunteer retention and support also remain key concerns.
Workforce Development Priorities
Effective workforce development in social care must support both the practical and emotional demands of frontline roles. It should:
- Strengthen skills in coaching, strengths-based, and trauma-informed approaches
- Embed reflective supervision and restorative practices into everyday work
- Support ethical judgement, confident decision-making, and autonomous practice
- Include frameworks for having self management conversations with service users
- Be practical, values-driven, and directly relevant to day-to-day care
- Help staff reconnect with purpose and sustain resilience in demanding roles
Our Experience
TPC Health has worked across the VCSE sector, delivering accessible, relevant learning for teams and individuals. We have:
- Trained staff and volunteers in coaching and strengths-based approaches
- Introduced supervision models tailored for small and informal teams
- Supported adoption of trauma-informed and asset-based practice
- Helped VCSE partners engage confidently with health and care systems
- Co-designed learning that reflects community values and lived experience
We understand the values and realities of this sector — and design development that strengthens impact from the ground up.
Roles our Apprenticeships are most suitable for
The Level 3 Community Health and Wellbeing Worker Apprenticeship:
- Community connectors / link workers
- Befriending or peer-support coordinators
- Youth-work health outreach staff
- Mental-health recovery college facilitators
- Advice & advocacy workers focusing on health inequalities
- Green Social-Prescribing Coach
- Falls Prevention & Mobility Coach
- Digital Inclusion Coach
The Level 5 Coaching Professional Apprenticeship:
- Team leaders, deputy managers & registered managers introducing coaching supervision
- Practice educators / skills assessors mentoring new care staff
- Integrated-care or discharge-to-assess leads
- Community OT or social-work senior practitioners coaching frontline teams