Working mum nominated for top national award
One of Solent NHS Trust’s Degree Apprentices has been nominated for a prestigious national award.
Project Management Degree Apprentice Rochelle Sampson-Clarke is a finalist in the Apprentice of the Year category at the 2023 Our Health Heroes Awards.
Joining Solent in 2019, Rochelle was part of the first cohort of Project Management Degree Apprentices for the Trust, working in the estates management team. In just over three years, she has made a tremendous impact, despite having no prior project management experience.
‘Rochelle gives her all to every project, recognising that often it is the small details that can have the most impact,’ said Solent NHS Trust’s Nicola White, who nominated Rochelle. An example of this was when she produced a welcome sign in Makaton - a language programme that uses symbols, signs and speech to enable people to communicate - for one of our children’s centres.
‘This bespoke signage was an immediate hit with young patients and their families. Not content with the challenges of a degree, Rochelle has completed a Personal Development Leadership programme delivered by Solent. This has given her the opportunity to learn leadership techniques and people management skills to provide a basis from which she may become a future leader.’
Rochelle also plays an active role on the Association for Project Management’s Women in Project Management Committee, chairing a mental health and wellbeing sub-group.
Last year, she also addressed over 250 people at the Women in Project Management Conference held in London and has taken part in talks about project management careers and apprenticeships to school children in Portsmouth.