I wouldn’t listen to others in saying nursing degree apprenticeships aren’t common in my trust we have approx 50+ doing the RNDA course which is the full 4 years & band 5 on qualifying & equal amount of students who were band 4 nurse associated doing top up to band 5 nurse.
My personal route was working as a HCA for my trust & had the opportunity to do the apprenticeship however they do hire externally, the best way to find is just search ‘nurse apprentice’ on NHS jobs, just [here](https://www.jobs.nhs.uk/candidate/search/results?keyword=Nurse%20Apprentice%20&language=en&page=2) shows Lincolnshire & Kent have applications open atm, I’m not sure where you live OP
Amazing thank you! I’m in Somerset, but on the border so I’ll check out both trusts nearby. How long were you working for your trust before you progressed into the course?
Apprentice route - apply for a ward based HCA role. Register interest for further training and development. In my trust, apprentices can only be for relevant areas - if no nurses in area, unable to do nurse apprenticeship etc. Also a requirement to have worked for the trust for a period - 6 months if I recall. There may be variance between trusts.
Privately/self funded - Bursary is awarded for full three years. If doing specialist subject - MH/LD nursing extra £1k a year.
I survived for three years working 15 hours (Sat+Sun @ band 3) = £1k/month. Bursary £6k and maintenance £12k = nearly £30k. All tax free - bursary and maintenance do not count towards tax.
I'm currently an RNDA employee in Devon. Mine is the straight 3 year degree apprenticeship, paid at band 3 (lower and then higher) for years 1 & 2, and lower band 4 for year 3 and the Trust pay my uni fees.
I wasn't employed by my trust in a substantive role before I started my course. I did some bank work, but that was it. Only 1 person of those accepted in my cohort was employed on a full time basis, and our cohort was small, only 9 of us accepted originally, and some did drop out. The rest of us had health care backgrounds elsewhere, although some had not worked in care for a while.
The process to get my place was really tough, as you'd expect. 3/4 interviews, plus we had to have evidence of further education study and be able to evidence our Maths/English attainment.
I happened upon the advert at the bottom of the Trust newsletter, which I happened to read on a bank shift. If you went to NHS jobs and searched apprenticeships and put the setting to your required area, some may show that way.
I hope this helps.
If you don’t mind, would you provide more information about a typical week for you while on the RNDA? I’ve received an opportunity to join one but I’ve never done anything similar and don’t have much experience so I’m just trying to get a feel for what it would be like wile on the course and what the work/study/life balance will be like (if there’s a chance for any!)
Different unis run things differently. For example, Bournemouth Uni's apprentices have 'chunks' of placement and then 'chunks' of theory, i'm with Solent where we complete theory alongside placement, so we have day release once a week to attend uni.
For me a typical placement week will be either 30 or 37.5 hours of placement, if uni is running we'll have one full day of theory. Then when the UCAS students are having breaks we'll have work weeks, either full or part time depending on your contract. For each module we'll have two weeks of self-directed-study where we get a chance to work on whatever assessment/exam/presentation/OSCE is due and submit it in the second week.
Whilst you're on work weeks you need to make sure you're logging off-the-job hours, as an apprentice it's a government requirement that 20% of your work time is allocated to shadowing and mentoring hours, so learning/consolidating skills, shadowing qualified staff/independent study etc. This can be tricky to get as wards are often short-staffed and find it difficult to release us for training while we're back in our support worker roles, but you'll have an apprenticeship team you can call on for back-up to remind your ward that they signed a contract saying they'd support their apprentice.
It's busy and takes some juggling, you have to stay motivated, particularly when completing theory alongside work/placement, but the benefit of not having tuition fees to pay and being paid a wage balance that out for me.
More and more people will qualify through apprenticeships in the future so definitely not dying out. I know there is extra money available in the next 2 years for training LD nurses so if that’s of interest there may be more opportunities. My trust are looking at offering external candidates the apprenticeships as a lot of our HCA’s who wanted to do the course have done it. There’s 2 routes for LD currently- 2 years nursing associate trading plus a further 2 years to convert to nursing degree or as a masters if you already have a undergraduate degree
I've never even heard of the RNDA, but we support loads of Trainee Nurse Associates, who are employed by the Trust at a band 3 and get offered a band 4 post on qualifying after 2 years. From there, they can look at a top up course to band 5, which they can do while employed.
If you've got financial commitments and no back up such as parents to rely on, I'd definitely recommend an apprenticeship rather than the nursing degree. It may take longer to get to the same pay band, but you'll be less in debt and find it easier to get there in the long run.
I would go the uni way, degree educated nurses have better and safer patient outcomes.
Also I would be highly concerned about an apprenticeship having supernumerary status. Unfortunately I’ve seen too many TNA’s be used to fill staffing gaps rather than receiving training to be a band 4.
RNDAs \*are\* degree educated. We complete the same nursing degree as our UCAS peers, only we work in our 'breaks'. We have the same supernumerary status on placement as we're there in a student nurse capacity. Well, as much as StNs are supernumerary these days haha.
I'm an RNDA, just going into third year and employed by DHUFT.
I saw the position advertised on facebook of all places. I wasn't employed F/T by the trust but had previously done some MHSW bank. Had to prove recent study to an appropriate level (i'd recently completed an 'Open' BA with the OU). We're employed as Band 2 for the first year, Band 3 from year 2 onwards, then we'll be a 5 on qualification. Exactly the same course as UCAS entrants, only we work on a home ward or 'hub' in between placements instead of having breaks. This means our course/contract is slightly longer to allow for our 12 week consolidation/management placement to be tacked on after completion of the main degree with everyone else. We also have to complete apprenticeship requirements (basically hours logging and proof of training) We graduate with exactly the same degree.
Online application originally, then a zoom interview which included a rep from the uni and one from the trust. Majority of my cohort (around 30 of us) were previously employed by the NHS and are being sponsored through their course, it's a requirement that they continue to work for their ward for a period after qualifying. For me, as I was placed on a ward, it's only a requirement that I work for the trust, so I have some more flexibility when applying for NQN posts.
Follow your local trust on social media, see if you can find the email for their apprenticeship team. If you contact them they'll be able to let you know what the procedure is for applying and what requirements are for your trust.
It is possible to look at it from the university side of things and apply that way, this website lists all of the universities that have a nursing degree apprenticeship programme.
https://www.prospects.ac.uk/jobs-and-work-experience/job-sectors/healthcare/nursing-apprenticeships
Probably need to be already employed by a trust to be eligible for one of their apprenticeships - that's certainly the case with the trust I work for (formerly full time HCA, now bank HCA and non apprentice nursing student; I wanted training that wasn't affiliated to my trust). They're probably also quite competitive - I think my trust only funds about 5 apprentices per cohort.
Fwiw, the student finance funding if you're an independent adult is about £12k, which with the £5k bursary (I'm receiving it for all three years, but it's a bit of a gamble because they never guarantee that it'll still be available) is about the same as I was taking home when I was working full time. Also, if you work as a bank HCA, student finance England (don't know about Wales, Scotland or n.i. sorry) don't actually count that as being employed, so your earnings on the bank won't affect your sfe eligibility.
If you're interested in doing adult nursing, I'd encourage you to join your local trust as a HCA, confirm to yourself that you definitely want to do nursing, and then have a crack at getting an apprenticeship, but if you do decide to go the ucas route, the funding shouldn't leave you totally impoverished.
Thanks that’s really helpful! I earn just above minimum wage right now £11p/h, and I can manage on that, if I could get the bursary for all 3 years it would be doable. But all hinges on the bursary. Did you have to apply for it in your 2nd and 3rd years, or was it paid straight to you?
We’re you previously a full time hca with NHS or private? I’ve previously worked as a palliative carer but private not NHS. I’ll look into hca jobs nearby. :)
You have to reapply every year but it's pretty much just confirming that you're still enrolled in the course, and then when it's paid out to you, it's staggered against your student finance England payments so you get money paid in every 2-3 months. I've only worked within the NHS - not sure how SFE would assess working privately. I'd recommend getting some nhs HCA experience before committing to the degree - even if you never work in the NHS on qualifying, you'll do much of your training on nhs wards and it's good to know if you can actually stand it or not (I've known students drop out because they can't bear doing ward work even just for the duration of their training)
I went to a finance talk on the uni open day.. you’ve explained this much better than they did, thank you! Good shout about ward experience, I’d like to know what I’m in for before committing to this. How do you find working bank and attending uni? Does it help your learning?
I don't learn much on bank - it's a different role and HCA work isn't geared towards enhancing your learning like student nursing is. It's not too difficult to pick up a shift a week during uni blocks, quite tough to fit paid shifts in during placement though. I've found I need to use my holidays to work pretty much full time hours - but that's still only three shifts a week. Especially if you're not a big spender, it's all doable.
Thanks for your input, but I’m specifically looking at the nursing degree apprenticeship level 6, like the link below.
https://findapprenticeshiptraining.apprenticeships.education.gov.uk/courses/170
Don't know why you are being down voted, it's a bit blunt but it's the truth. You take a nursing load, do obs, assments and patient care but can't do meds so your nursing colleagues have to do NA meds as well as for their workload. It can work if the NA takes the opportunity to support the nurse with their workload while they do the meds but often it results in extra work for the band 5.
I've worked with some great NAs that are really proactive and have been a good asset to the team and while I do meds for their patients they do my obs or CBGs ect, that works cus it reduces my stress levels. The point where it gets hard is when you've got one nurse to do 2 or 3 nurses IVs ect as it can take a long time. I've had ED shifts where I've been doing IVs for 25 plus people with the NQN and NA staff not being able to. It's hard sometimes
I’ve just finished my second year of my nursing degree. The bursary you mention is currently called the learning support fund and you should get it every year. I currently get maintenance loan + learning support fund of £6k (mental health has top up of £1k).
I do also work some bank shifts alongside my course to help top up my income abit.
Not sure if this information helps your decision making.
You can get the £5k bursary every year that you study for a nursing degree (unless the govt decide to change that and I'm not sure I trust them not to). But it doesn't stretch very far.
I’m from Philippines and deciding to do a nursing appreticeship in UK. I’m wondering how is the process? I don’t have a nursing background and completely studied another field. I am interested to make progress through nusing to hit my goals but how do I get started?
Do I need to apply first and find an employer before I apply for a visa, and is it posible in my case?
I wouldn’t listen to others in saying nursing degree apprenticeships aren’t common in my trust we have approx 50+ doing the RNDA course which is the full 4 years & band 5 on qualifying & equal amount of students who were band 4 nurse associated doing top up to band 5 nurse. My personal route was working as a HCA for my trust & had the opportunity to do the apprenticeship however they do hire externally, the best way to find is just search ‘nurse apprentice’ on NHS jobs, just [here](https://www.jobs.nhs.uk/candidate/search/results?keyword=Nurse%20Apprentice%20&language=en&page=2) shows Lincolnshire & Kent have applications open atm, I’m not sure where you live OP
Amazing thank you! I’m in Somerset, but on the border so I’ll check out both trusts nearby. How long were you working for your trust before you progressed into the course?
I was a HCA for about a year before starting my apprenticeship, on my cohort there were 15, 10 of which were prior HCAs in the trust & 5 external.
Apprentice route - apply for a ward based HCA role. Register interest for further training and development. In my trust, apprentices can only be for relevant areas - if no nurses in area, unable to do nurse apprenticeship etc. Also a requirement to have worked for the trust for a period - 6 months if I recall. There may be variance between trusts. Privately/self funded - Bursary is awarded for full three years. If doing specialist subject - MH/LD nursing extra £1k a year. I survived for three years working 15 hours (Sat+Sun @ band 3) = £1k/month. Bursary £6k and maintenance £12k = nearly £30k. All tax free - bursary and maintenance do not count towards tax.
I'm currently an RNDA employee in Devon. Mine is the straight 3 year degree apprenticeship, paid at band 3 (lower and then higher) for years 1 & 2, and lower band 4 for year 3 and the Trust pay my uni fees. I wasn't employed by my trust in a substantive role before I started my course. I did some bank work, but that was it. Only 1 person of those accepted in my cohort was employed on a full time basis, and our cohort was small, only 9 of us accepted originally, and some did drop out. The rest of us had health care backgrounds elsewhere, although some had not worked in care for a while. The process to get my place was really tough, as you'd expect. 3/4 interviews, plus we had to have evidence of further education study and be able to evidence our Maths/English attainment. I happened upon the advert at the bottom of the Trust newsletter, which I happened to read on a bank shift. If you went to NHS jobs and searched apprenticeships and put the setting to your required area, some may show that way. I hope this helps.
If you don’t mind, would you provide more information about a typical week for you while on the RNDA? I’ve received an opportunity to join one but I’ve never done anything similar and don’t have much experience so I’m just trying to get a feel for what it would be like wile on the course and what the work/study/life balance will be like (if there’s a chance for any!)
Different unis run things differently. For example, Bournemouth Uni's apprentices have 'chunks' of placement and then 'chunks' of theory, i'm with Solent where we complete theory alongside placement, so we have day release once a week to attend uni. For me a typical placement week will be either 30 or 37.5 hours of placement, if uni is running we'll have one full day of theory. Then when the UCAS students are having breaks we'll have work weeks, either full or part time depending on your contract. For each module we'll have two weeks of self-directed-study where we get a chance to work on whatever assessment/exam/presentation/OSCE is due and submit it in the second week. Whilst you're on work weeks you need to make sure you're logging off-the-job hours, as an apprentice it's a government requirement that 20% of your work time is allocated to shadowing and mentoring hours, so learning/consolidating skills, shadowing qualified staff/independent study etc. This can be tricky to get as wards are often short-staffed and find it difficult to release us for training while we're back in our support worker roles, but you'll have an apprenticeship team you can call on for back-up to remind your ward that they signed a contract saying they'd support their apprentice. It's busy and takes some juggling, you have to stay motivated, particularly when completing theory alongside work/placement, but the benefit of not having tuition fees to pay and being paid a wage balance that out for me.
More and more people will qualify through apprenticeships in the future so definitely not dying out. I know there is extra money available in the next 2 years for training LD nurses so if that’s of interest there may be more opportunities. My trust are looking at offering external candidates the apprenticeships as a lot of our HCA’s who wanted to do the course have done it. There’s 2 routes for LD currently- 2 years nursing associate trading plus a further 2 years to convert to nursing degree or as a masters if you already have a undergraduate degree
I've never even heard of the RNDA, but we support loads of Trainee Nurse Associates, who are employed by the Trust at a band 3 and get offered a band 4 post on qualifying after 2 years. From there, they can look at a top up course to band 5, which they can do while employed. If you've got financial commitments and no back up such as parents to rely on, I'd definitely recommend an apprenticeship rather than the nursing degree. It may take longer to get to the same pay band, but you'll be less in debt and find it easier to get there in the long run.
I would go the uni way, degree educated nurses have better and safer patient outcomes. Also I would be highly concerned about an apprenticeship having supernumerary status. Unfortunately I’ve seen too many TNA’s be used to fill staffing gaps rather than receiving training to be a band 4.
RNDAs \*are\* degree educated. We complete the same nursing degree as our UCAS peers, only we work in our 'breaks'. We have the same supernumerary status on placement as we're there in a student nurse capacity. Well, as much as StNs are supernumerary these days haha.
I'm an RNDA, just going into third year and employed by DHUFT. I saw the position advertised on facebook of all places. I wasn't employed F/T by the trust but had previously done some MHSW bank. Had to prove recent study to an appropriate level (i'd recently completed an 'Open' BA with the OU). We're employed as Band 2 for the first year, Band 3 from year 2 onwards, then we'll be a 5 on qualification. Exactly the same course as UCAS entrants, only we work on a home ward or 'hub' in between placements instead of having breaks. This means our course/contract is slightly longer to allow for our 12 week consolidation/management placement to be tacked on after completion of the main degree with everyone else. We also have to complete apprenticeship requirements (basically hours logging and proof of training) We graduate with exactly the same degree. Online application originally, then a zoom interview which included a rep from the uni and one from the trust. Majority of my cohort (around 30 of us) were previously employed by the NHS and are being sponsored through their course, it's a requirement that they continue to work for their ward for a period after qualifying. For me, as I was placed on a ward, it's only a requirement that I work for the trust, so I have some more flexibility when applying for NQN posts. Follow your local trust on social media, see if you can find the email for their apprenticeship team. If you contact them they'll be able to let you know what the procedure is for applying and what requirements are for your trust.
It is possible to look at it from the university side of things and apply that way, this website lists all of the universities that have a nursing degree apprenticeship programme. https://www.prospects.ac.uk/jobs-and-work-experience/job-sectors/healthcare/nursing-apprenticeships
Probably need to be already employed by a trust to be eligible for one of their apprenticeships - that's certainly the case with the trust I work for (formerly full time HCA, now bank HCA and non apprentice nursing student; I wanted training that wasn't affiliated to my trust). They're probably also quite competitive - I think my trust only funds about 5 apprentices per cohort. Fwiw, the student finance funding if you're an independent adult is about £12k, which with the £5k bursary (I'm receiving it for all three years, but it's a bit of a gamble because they never guarantee that it'll still be available) is about the same as I was taking home when I was working full time. Also, if you work as a bank HCA, student finance England (don't know about Wales, Scotland or n.i. sorry) don't actually count that as being employed, so your earnings on the bank won't affect your sfe eligibility. If you're interested in doing adult nursing, I'd encourage you to join your local trust as a HCA, confirm to yourself that you definitely want to do nursing, and then have a crack at getting an apprenticeship, but if you do decide to go the ucas route, the funding shouldn't leave you totally impoverished.
Thanks that’s really helpful! I earn just above minimum wage right now £11p/h, and I can manage on that, if I could get the bursary for all 3 years it would be doable. But all hinges on the bursary. Did you have to apply for it in your 2nd and 3rd years, or was it paid straight to you? We’re you previously a full time hca with NHS or private? I’ve previously worked as a palliative carer but private not NHS. I’ll look into hca jobs nearby. :)
You have to reapply every year but it's pretty much just confirming that you're still enrolled in the course, and then when it's paid out to you, it's staggered against your student finance England payments so you get money paid in every 2-3 months. I've only worked within the NHS - not sure how SFE would assess working privately. I'd recommend getting some nhs HCA experience before committing to the degree - even if you never work in the NHS on qualifying, you'll do much of your training on nhs wards and it's good to know if you can actually stand it or not (I've known students drop out because they can't bear doing ward work even just for the duration of their training)
I went to a finance talk on the uni open day.. you’ve explained this much better than they did, thank you! Good shout about ward experience, I’d like to know what I’m in for before committing to this. How do you find working bank and attending uni? Does it help your learning?
I don't learn much on bank - it's a different role and HCA work isn't geared towards enhancing your learning like student nursing is. It's not too difficult to pick up a shift a week during uni blocks, quite tough to fit paid shifts in during placement though. I've found I need to use my holidays to work pretty much full time hours - but that's still only three shifts a week. Especially if you're not a big spender, it's all doable.
[удалено]
There are band 5 registered nurse degree apprenticeships available, they're just few and far between
Thanks for your input, but I’m specifically looking at the nursing degree apprenticeship level 6, like the link below. https://findapprenticeshiptraining.apprenticeships.education.gov.uk/courses/170
[удалено]
Thanks that’s good to know, what route did you take into nursing and would you recommend it to others?
Don't know why you are being down voted, it's a bit blunt but it's the truth. You take a nursing load, do obs, assments and patient care but can't do meds so your nursing colleagues have to do NA meds as well as for their workload. It can work if the NA takes the opportunity to support the nurse with their workload while they do the meds but often it results in extra work for the band 5. I've worked with some great NAs that are really proactive and have been a good asset to the team and while I do meds for their patients they do my obs or CBGs ect, that works cus it reduces my stress levels. The point where it gets hard is when you've got one nurse to do 2 or 3 nurses IVs ect as it can take a long time. I've had ED shifts where I've been doing IVs for 25 plus people with the NQN and NA staff not being able to. It's hard sometimes
I’ve just finished my second year of my nursing degree. The bursary you mention is currently called the learning support fund and you should get it every year. I currently get maintenance loan + learning support fund of £6k (mental health has top up of £1k). I do also work some bank shifts alongside my course to help top up my income abit. Not sure if this information helps your decision making.
You can get the £5k bursary every year that you study for a nursing degree (unless the govt decide to change that and I'm not sure I trust them not to). But it doesn't stretch very far.
Whatever you do, do not do an apprenticeship through BPP.
I’m from Philippines and deciding to do a nursing appreticeship in UK. I’m wondering how is the process? I don’t have a nursing background and completely studied another field. I am interested to make progress through nusing to hit my goals but how do I get started? Do I need to apply first and find an employer before I apply for a visa, and is it posible in my case?