Biomedical Science or Social Work degree!?

[FlyingHigh20]

DD is struggling to decide between these 2. She would need to do 4 years for biomedical science as she doesn't have an A-level in science. Or social work? She wants to either get into pathology (which she doesn't even need the bioscience degree for, but she wants to learn more about science before applying for a trainee role - what other science education could she do instead of the degree?) or child protection.

Which is better do you think??

I am a biomedical scientist. Its a decent career and rewarding if she's interested in science. The pay is alright, especially if you work out of hours (which many places expect you to).

BMS jobs arent that easy to get due to nhs financial situation. Once she has the degree she would have to work for a tear as as trainee and complete her BMS registration portfolio and pass assessment she can be as registered BMS. BMS is a protected job title and she will have to pay to be registered with the HPC in order to work as one.

Ignore the poster up thread who said a Bms degree is only useful if you want to be a doctor, vet or dentist- that's bollocks (Dr needs a medical degree for a start).

Bms degree can get you into lab work for nhs, pharmaceutical companies or research, or can help you get a position doing a PhD.

Hope that helps.

When I apies to uni to study social work there were 10 applicants for every place. Those who got on had vast amounts of social care experience. There were a handful of school leavers but all had worked in a care home/volunteered in schools ect.

Definitely biomedical science. This is my field, it's fast moving, full of exciting innovations, and there are many opportunities across industry, academia and the NHS.

OH GOD NOT SOCIAL WORK

My DD is currently in her second year of a Bio-med degree. She absolutely loves it and wants to go on to do a degree in medicine.
She did a Btec in biomedical sciences as opposed to A levels, she says in some ways it has given her an advantage as she has had a bit more practical experience so she's used to the lab equipment but she says the chemistry aspects of the course were hard for her.
She does say though that it takes discipline to due the course because it's not something you can blag in an exam you have to know your stuff, there are a few from her first year that have dropped out but she says you could sort of tell they would as they rarely turned up to lectures and rarely the work seriously.

I work as a BMS - at the moment it seems to be extremely competitive. We have a lot of biomedical science graduates who work for us as MLAs (Medical Laboratory Assistants) but have to spend 2 or 3 years at the lower bands before they even get a trainee job (which starts at the bottom of NHS pay band 4 - look it up, it's not great money!). I had to take an MSc before I could get a trainee job, and it was less competitive then!

However, once they've established themselves it's an interesting and varied job with reasonable though not exactly stratospheric pay. Most hospitals also now expect night shifts and weekend working as part of the hours, which is less lucrative than the old on call system and can be problematic if you have a family as it's largely been made compulsory.

The two bodies to look into are the HCPC which regulates degrees and registration (your DD would have to take a degree that they approve for training - not all biomedical science degrees are approved) and the IBMS (Institute of Biomedical Science) which these days you don't really need to be part of to be a BMS but it helps - there's lots of stuff about training on their websites.

I agree that it's very different to social work. It's become very automated, so you have to get to know machinery very well and you get little or no contact with patients, although you still need to be a fairly altruistic person to do a decent job as the number of urgent requests from extremely ill patients is increasing all the time and you have to care enough to stay behind after you finish work to finish that vital test for someone who will never know you exist. You also need to be able to work under a lot of pressure if you work for the NHS as the number of samples goes up by 5-10% every year but staffing levels remain the same or go down. I've heard private hospital labs and reference labs are a doddle though (that greener grass again...)

I work in contract research. We can't recruit science graduates fast enough. Plus it's a STEM subject, so imho, you would have an increased "transferable skill set" (shuddering at the HR buzzwords). My niece and nephew have graduated in the past 2 years with Arts degrees. Neither is in full time employment.

Biomedical science is completely different to SW.why such polarised choices?
Usually folk group health/social care courses as options e.g. Nurse,OT,SW
What appeals about both to her?has she shadowed people in both these jobs

It's a good idea to look at how competitive the job market is. No good setting your heart on something if it's unlikely to lead to good chances in the job market.