Embracing innovation to evolve apprenticeship delivery in the dental sector.

Innovation is a current hot topic in education circles, particularly with the acceleration of AI and all that this brings. Innovation of any kind is certainly what education, in all its guises, needs more than ever right now. The challenge of the pandemic across the teaching spectrum forced finding new ways of embracing learning a necessity, but none more so than in the world of apprenticeships, where a far more revolutionary approach was required to support both employers and learners in maintaining qualification progress, upskilling and retaining staff.

One of the major benefits of undertaking an apprenticeship with an employer (versus attending college for example) is the real-life, hands-on experience and knowledge gained in a work environment.

To achieve an apprenticeship qualification the apprentice needs to demonstrate the knowledge, skills and behaviours associated with the standards of the qualification, not only by their theoretical understanding, but practical, real-time demonstration in the work setting.

Using a wide range of assessment methods, the Coach collects evidence to demonstrate competency. Assessment is ongoing throughout the qualification period and includes observations, online tests, written questions, witness testimonies and professional discussion.

The challenge

The challenge we faced in the delivery of our Dental Apprenticeships, was the ability to observe apprentices demonstrating the required skills and behaviours for some of the less common treatments, which by nature are the more intrusive procedures for both patients and staff. These procedures include:

• Root canal treatment
• Amalgam restoration
• Surgical extraction (including Sutures)
• Examination with charting

This was not a new issue for us, and we had started working on a solution before the outbreak of COVID, the pandemic increased the pace of the project and the need for innovation in our teaching methods.

The dental apprentice provides chair-side support and works alongside a dentist, dental hygienist, dental therapist, clinical dental technician, or orthodontic therapist in a surgery environment with patients attending throughout the day. The apprentice ensures high standards of cleanliness and infection control, prepare instruments, materials and medications for dental procedures, keep records, note dictation, and ensure patient comfort and safety at all times.

Teaching the knowledge element of the apprenticeship is straightforward to degree, but conducting observations of the apprentice carrying out the necessary skills in a live environment, to demonstrate their competency is a real challenge.

Conducting observations in a live environment

The key challenges Coaches face when completing observations with apprentices are:

• Planned treatment may change on the day due to changes in staff rotas, sickness or staff shortages
• Some treatments are only conducted on certain days in a surgery
• Apprentice dental nurses are not allowed to be present for certain procedures
• Apprentices lack the opportunity to practice their skills before being in the live environment
• Patients not authorising for an apprentice to be present during the procedure

The solution

Partnering with VRSS and Luft Technologies we began developing a VR teaching tool in early 2021, with phase 2 of development picking up pace in January 2022 and formally launching our product at the Dentistry Conference in Birmingham in May 2022.

The safe, immersive and engaging environment that VR provides, allows a safe space for apprentices to learn and make mistakes, with no impact on the patient. The controlled scenarios cover the breadth of the qualification and specifically the rare or difficult-to-observe procedures. This accelerates learning and competence and increases the apprentice’s confidence before moving chair-side.

The benefits of VR in a learning environment:

• Creates an engaging, immersive and safe environment for the learner
• Removes concern over patient safety or patient consent
• The interactive nature of VR and the ability to replay scenarios focuses the learner’s attention and embeds learning and increases knowledge retention
• Offers a flexible teaching tool for our Coaches to ensure qualification criteria are met to a best-in class standard
• Opens accessibility and more opportunity for the learner, employer and Coaches to achieve the standards of the qualification in a timely way

Accelerating innovation in apprenticeship delivery

Methods of teaching and learning will not go back to pre-pandemic ways. The pace of acceleration of developing technologies must be something we embrace if we are to equip our learners, and employers, with the best skills for an ever-changing world.

Embracing new technology and innovation to improve the learning experience and continually striving to raise teaching standards is an ongoing focus for the team at Aspiration Training.

We are already working with our software partners on the next phase of development for our VR environment, including creating a product that dental practices can use for induction and internal staff training. We are working with awarding organisations to accredit our VR teaching tool as a formal assessment method, a first for our sector.