For most health and social care careers, the university pathway is considered the traditional way to enter the sector and gain a qualification to becoming a registered professional. University degrees in health and social care professions will typically combine academic learning with clinical experience, meaning that students will be able to apply what they’ve learned quickly. Upon graduation, students will typically gain a Bachelor of Science (BSc) degree.
The scope of the course, and even the length of the university degree, will depend on the university you choose to study at. There are a lot of factors for choosing a university of your choice - it may depend on your grades, where you’d like to live, and even how you want to learn. It’s well worth spending some time researching different universities, and thinking about what’s right for you. Some universities may even have earlier application deadlines, such as Oxford or Cambridge (who tend to close application in October, with the majority of universities closing applications in the following January), so don’t get caught out!
The university pathway is only one option for aspiring professionals wanting to go into health and social care. A viable alternative is an apprenticeship, which provides people with the opportunity to mix academic working with paid experience. In health and social care instances, the apprenticeship may even provide you with the university degree, as part of a degree apprenticeship - this is where you work towards a university degree, but get paid by your healthcare employer for the clinical experience you undertake.
Apprenticeships will vary in length, and will split time between academic learning, and clinical experience. Typically, you may find yourself in an academic setting roughly 20% of the time, with the remainder seeing you engage in hands-on experience.
It’s worth noting that there can be some particular requirements for apprenticeships within health and social care. Some apprenticeships may only be available for aspiring professionals who already work or have experience in a healthcare setting. The apprenticeships are run and funded by the employer, which means that rather than searching on UCAS for these opportunities, you may instead search on employer’s websites.
Depending on the health and social care career that you’re interested in, there can be an alternate route to either university or an apprenticeship. Although the routes may differ, they can all provide you with eventual or immediate access to the role of your choice, and will provide invaluable experience if you have to progress.
The route itself can vary - for some careers, it may be the case that you can apply to a role without prior qualifications that are higher than Level 2; for others, the pathway may offer you a role in which you can gain invaluable experience, and then progress to your desired role. It’s important to recognise as these kinds of pathways can differ, not all career options may have a specialist or alternative pathway route. This is often due to particular careers requiring specific qualifications.