Stronger together
When you’re pitching to train apprentices at the biggest public sector bodies in the UK, credibility is what makes you stand out. The Lighthouse Group can count four central government departments, several NHS hospitals and mental health trusts on its client list, along with large private companies.
Managing Director Gill Shimmon says:
The biggest thing CMI gives us is commercial credibility. We’re only a small training firm, but to say we’re approved by CMI and offer CMI qualifications gives us kudos - it shows that actually we know what we’re doing.
CMI now carries out Lighthouse’s EPAs for Level 3 Business Administration, Level 3 Team Leader/Supervisor and Level 5 Operations Manager. “Offering EPAs through someone who doesn’t specialise in leadership and management wouldn’t work for us,” Gill says.
“So that’s a big driver. I think the relationships we’ve built and the support we get from CMI is what has made us so strong together. There’s always someone there that will listen. So for me, it’s all about relationships and if things ever go wrong can we work together to fix it.”
CMI analyses the latest practices and understands the challenges across different sectors. Our trainers incorporate this expertise into our delivery, saving time that would otherwise be spent on extensive research.
Superior distinction rates
CMI’s guidance and online learning tools help more than 80% of Lighthouse apprentices achieve a Distinction. “CMI’s helped us by aligning their learning resources with the apprenticeship standards for a more tailored approach.” Gill says.
“Our learners benefit from a wealth of materials to enhance their assignments and learning outcomes, such as podcasts, thought leadership papers and other resources that are really useful in practice.”
The End-Point Assessment can be a daunting experience for some apprentices, and Gill often hears stories of how CMI assessors have been instrumental in guiding them through the process.
“If someone’s having a bad day or they’re a little bit nervous - and we’ve had this a few times - the assessor has worked really hard to get the answers out of them by rephrasing questions. Or they’ve recognised someone’s getting anxious and given them time to calm down.”
It’s the little things that make a difference and we always feel like CMI wants the apprentices to succeed as much as we do. We’re there to help them show the best of themselves, so it really feels like a partnership.
The path to Chartered Manager
The latest apprenticeship CMI has started assessing for Lighthouse is the Level 3 Business Administration, which the training provider launched in 2023.
A key reason Lighthouse chose CMI was because it puts apprentices on the pathway to Foundation Chartered Manager (fCMgr) or full Chartered Manager (CMgr) status post-completion. “No one else can offer that and it’s a big one commercially for us,” Gill says.
“But the main thing is that we’re working with someone who knows our world.”
CMI’s EPA team has weekly calls with us to give feedback on learners, as well as what’s coming through, what the changes are and where the pitfalls are. It means we’re constantly looking at the Distinction criteria with our apprentices to push them along that road and they go into their EPA prepared for everything.
“We have every intention of continuing this mutually beneficial relationship with CMI.”