Uni or apprenticeship?

[Idontlikecheesecake]

Hi, I’m posting on here for traffic and I need help to identify which could be the best route for me, so any help identifying pros and cons for each route that I may have missed would be very much appreciated!

I have recently been offered to study towards my masters in nursing at university, which will end up with me being a registered nurse. It will mean leaving my job (I have worked for the nhs for nearly 3 years), but an email has circulated advertising a masters apprenticeship with the same result and now im torn! So i have come up with a list of pros and cons for each, and any more that people can think of, or how people would feel/manage in these situations would be great!

I have one child, who is 4 and will be starting school in September
I am prepared for the hard work that will be required for either course
Both routes would mean i am qualified in 2 years
I have only just found out about this opportunity tonight and the closing date is next week so don’t have much time. So there’s a lot of assumptions, but if anyone has experienced anything like this, please do tell!

Uni route pros
I wouldn’t be contracted to work in my time off from lectures and placement
I can pick shifts with NHSP for extra money
My partner earns about £43k per annum, and he will be supporting my student finance application, but depending on the financial year they assess, I may get maximum funding as he was training a few years ago

Uni route cons
Not sure how much I will get through student finance, I think my decision will largely come down to this

Apprenticeship route pros
I will stay employed, meaning I will continue to work towards accruing additional annual leave (kicks in after 5 years), my pension etc
No more student debt (yay!)

Apprenticeship cons
I will probably be expected to work my contracted hours when i do not have lectures or placement (would mean working Christmas and/or new year) - this is something I’m assuming based on similar roles
Pay is shocking for the first year - £160 per week, and then the second year is £17k
Probably wouldn’t have time to pick up extra shifts

I’m not sure if i would qualify for that £5k nursing funding that bojo brought back if i did the apprenticeship. This is something I would need to look into

We could manage financially either route we take as my partner has said he would support me. But I don’t want to live off him.

I know where I want to be, and I was happy with uni, until i read this email

Sparkle, yes it states that I would need to work for the trust for 18 months post qualifying. My main concern is feeling like the hospital would own me while I’m studying. Having to work my contracted hours when uni is closed for Christmas etc and the hospital checking up on my attendance and academic progress

Tbh there is a big difference between a nurse and nursing associate. I'd go uni.

Apprenticeship all the way

@Clementine8 l thought that was only if the break in service was less than 12 months?

Why do nursing apprentiships still have to work their normal 37 hours a week, usually with apprentiships 20% of your time should be spent on learning, which can include formal learning but also informal 'on the job' type stuff, coaching etc.
Perhaps check that out before you sign up as can't think why it would be different for nursing?

@SouthOfFrance
2 types of nurses. One is a nurse associate who does a 2 year on the job apprentice and are not a proper nurse.

The other is a 3 year registered nurse uni course where you are a qualified nurse afterwards. You do uni and placements as it is part of the nmc training requirements

Thread is from 8th April and the closing date for the apprenticeship application was a week away so the OP will have applied if they did.

@Idontlikecheesecake what did you decide in the end?

Thank you for the advice everyone. I didn’t go for the apprenticeship in the end because I didn’t like the idea of being ‘owned’ by the hospital. I’m happy with going to uni, and didn’t want the stress of doing another application process - the next 2 years will be stressful enough, and I had lots of work to crack on with as a condition of my offer to uni, and I didn’t want to miss the deadline for that and end up not having any options