Medical doctor degree apprenticeships

East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust (ESNEFT) was the first trust to get involved with the pilot launch of the medical apprentices programme. The trust paired up with Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) providing medical education for apprentices employed by the trust.

The East of England is an under-doctored region. Areas in North Essex and South Suffolk have low or non-existent numbers of medical degree applicants. The opportunity to support the widening participation of medical training appealed as a way to bolster its medical workforce in the future and support the local community.

The trust intends to take 25 apprentices within the first year, with a view to expand in the future if the pilot is a success.

Entry requirements

ESNEFT worked closely with ARU to establish entry criteria for internal and external applicants. The entry criteria includes:

• ABB at A Level including a science subject within previous five years. Applicants must have GCSE maths and English.
• Science or allied health degree at 2:1 or higher within the past five years or any other degree at 2:1 with a science A Level or access to medicine or science within the past five years.
• Applicant has completed access to medicine or access to science course within the past five years (achieving 30 distinctions and 30 merit).

Employment

There is a desire to develop well rounded doctors throughout the apprenticeship programme. ESNEFT will take the opportunity to give apprentices exposure to areas of the trust they wouldn’t normally see during their medical education. Apprentices will undertake new roles within departments with bespoke job descriptions for each placement.

Apprentices will be able to express a preference, but the final decision on the role will be made by the employer dependent on availability and then rotated each year of the apprenticeship.

Academic teaching will follow the same block learning approach as traditional students, training will be during term time and placements with the employer outside of this. Annual leave will need to be arranged outside of the academic timetable.

Medical apprentices will be employed on local terms and conditions of service, however these will mirror agenda for change for things like entitlement to annual leave. 

Annex 21 of the NHS Terms and Conditions of Service will be used for the apprentice salary calculations. This will increase incrementally for each year of the apprenticeship and is based on the Foundation Year 1 pay scale. For the first year, apprentices will receive 60 per cent of the Foundation Year 1 salary which will increase each year.

Recruitment

There has been a great deal of interest with the launch of the pilot, with over 3,000 individuals applying to participate in the trust's initial information session.

This has led to 388 applications for the 25 apprenticeship posts which will commence in September 2024.

ESNEFT has worked closely with ARU which has an established shortlisting process for widening participations such as adjusted scoring for applications from certain backgrounds, demographics and localities.

Apprentices will remain within the trust for their two foundation years.