Medical apprenticeships: what next now that the scheme has been paused?
BMJ 2025; 388 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.r128 (Published 22 January 2025) Cite this as: BMJ 2025;388:r128
- Erin Dean, freelance health journalist
- UK
- erin{at}erindeanwriting.com
For the past 18 months staff at Plymouth University’s Peninsula Medical School have been working hard to develop a medical apprenticeship programme, an alternative route into medicine beyond the current medical degree course.1 In partnership with NHS employers, the university came up with a radical four year programme that would allow apprentices to work and study mainly where they lived.
The programme was aimed at graduates already in healthcare who hadn’t previously had the opportunity to become doctors, says Laura Bowater, head of the medical school (box 1). But late last year, just as the team was about to seek the first cohort of apprentices to start this September, they were told by the government to pause recruitment.2
What are medical apprenticeships?
Medical apprenticeships (also called medical doctor degree apprenticeships or NHS doctor apprenticeships) aimed to open an alternative route into medicine beyond the current medical degree course.
“The main difference between the apprenticeship and a traditional medical degree is that apprentices will work in healthcare from the beginning of their degree while also studying the academic subjects of a medical degree,” Elizabeth Hughes, medical director for undergraduate medicine at NHS England, told The BMJ last year.
The Department for Education said in a blog published in February 2024, “People who complete the medical doctor degree apprenticeship will have the same academic qualifications as those who complete their degree through medical school.”8
The apprenticeships would be delivered through a relationship between the apprentice, the employer, and the medical school, said Hughes. Apprentices would earn a salary as they trained, and they wouldn’t have to pay tuition fees.
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