“I wanted to walk the walk”: what a Level 7 apprenticeship taught NHS manager Debbie

Debbie McArthur fCMgr is head of apprenticeships and leadership at East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust (ESNEFT). She started the role in January 2022, and by November of that year she had embarked on a Level 7 Senior Leader Apprenticeship, completing it – with distinction – in September 2024. 

“I suppose I wanted to be able to walk the walk,” she says. “Working in the NHS with senior leadership teams, up to board level, is challenging. There are a lot of highly educated, academic people. Doing the apprenticeship has given me confidence, but it’s also shown me that I’ve been doing the right thing all along.”

“Education was an epiphany”

Debbie, who is on the shortlist for CMI’s Apprentice of the Year award, left school at 16 with basic qualifications and began her career in banking. Later, she set up her own business running an agency for nursery staff. But she wasn’t satisfied. 

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“I was interviewing people, but they were more qualified than me,” she says. “So I decided to go back into education and started taking courses. I don’t think my husband really understood the value, but I did. We agreed that if I could get it funded, I’d go for it, and I did. Eventually, I took a childhood and youth studies degree at the Open University.

“Education was an epiphany for me,” says Debbie, “a real turning point. It’s not just the learning; it’s the wider sense of purpose that lifelong learning gives you. It’s much wider than the studies themselves. It broadens your horizons in various ways.”