To think it’s ridiculous that given the NHS recruitment crisis my Dd has been told she can’t do the new T level in nursing due to a lack of placement places.

[Mudlark3r2]

She has the course requirements and then some and has been bumped onto a BTec which the government are phasing out.😵‍💫

Can this government organise anything properly?

Oh cross post. I would double check the entry requirements for nursing degrees. I would find it odd a T level would be the only option as this discriminates against mature students.

Hellocatshome

Btec, Tlevel or Alevel get you onto nursing degrees. She doesn’t want to do Alevels and too late now anyway. Only got told she was being bumped off Tlevel due to lack of placements v recently. Had presumed she was starting Tlevel
in Sep and all fine and dandy.

Why is it too late to do A Levels?

There's no way she is going to be working as a nurse on bank! You need a BSc Nursing qualification and NMC registration!

I worry about how qualified the staff are that are settling up these T levels. I think students are going to get bad advice.

Courses will be full, none she wants to do and schools have broken up. She doesn’t want to do Alevels. She wants a more practical route to get a true flavour of the job which helps with Uni applications. It’s quite a hard course to get onto.

honkeytonkwoman38

Have established it’s HCA. They are being encouraged to do “bank”. What sort of jobs do HCA do?

But she could apply to work on the bank as a HCA anyway so the course she is on is irrelevant to that.

Could she look for work as a HCA and do an open university course?
Maybe speak to your local trust about ways in.

I would say they government are great at organising things. They want to get their slimey hands on our nhs and so are organising it so it underperforms to ensure there aren riots when they take it and make a fortune.

Perhaps try a British source?

www.edapt.org.uk/support/knowledge-base/btecs-what-is-happening-to-them/

feweek.co.uk/ministers-play-down-btecs-cull/

www.gov.uk/government/publications/introduction-of-t-levels/introduction-of-t-levels#when-they-will-start

If your DD starts on the course she will be funded to complete it.

You won’t be surprised to hear that one way of easing the staffing crisis is to steal from other countries.

it’s heartbreaking for so many many reasons.

She wants to do the shiny new course the government says prepares you the best for nursing. That isn’t Alevels and it isn’t a btec they are phasing out. To only just realise they can’t accommodate said new better course as they are phasing out the previous nearest equivalent during a staffing crisis is beyond shit its incompetent.

Dear OP,
Whilst funding for health and social care BTec MAY be withdrawn from 2024 (not convinced as they are struggling with the roll out of T levels) that will mean no funding for NEW courses not that they will withdraw funding for those already on the course.

She could do HCA work and apply for a nursing apprenticeship. It's madness to work towards a nursing career academically without any experience as an HCA, in my opinion. The reality of nursing may be completely different to her expectations.

The BTEC being phased out won’t affect her if she is already on the course. They’ve already pushed it back due to the struggle to establish T-levels (the work placements being a big issue for a lot of courses) so it could well happen again.

If she prefers a practical route my advice is to work as a HCA in hospital then get onto an apprenticeship Nursing Associate or Nursing course. That way she can be paid as she studies. The employer has to select but it's a much better route if she prefers practical based study.

There aren't enough placements for degree students so makes sense they'd cut it from a programme that surely doesn't need them? Can't she do the course and try and get some bank work as a HCA or volunteer to bolster her application? It seems you're getting annoyed without knowing how these things work.

@Mudlark3r2 have you thought about emailing your MP about this? I think they need to know simply what's happening on the ground to individuals or the education minister (whoever that is now?!)

I understand you/she are disappointed but the fact is the course she wants to do is not available and the one she is currently enrolled for sounds unsuitable.

So this means if she really wants to be a nurse she has to take a different route (maybe one she's not keen on). Its a means to an ends.

It doesnt matter schools are closed she can enroll on A levels at college, if all the courses are full she can spend a year doing some sort of HCA/care work which will look good on the Uni application then enroll next year.

Similarly she could enrolled on part time A level courses and work part time in a caring role which would also look good on the Uni application.

Or she could get an apprenticeship in a HCA/care type role and apply to Hni via taking an access course in several years time.

Its not ideal and its disappointing if she had her heart set on one route but there is more than one way to skin a cat as my Nana used to say.

She may have to do the L3 health and care qualification as she works

TBH she might be better off doing the well established BTEC course, and perhaps a bit of part time care work or bank shifts. The staff teaching the BTEC will have years of experience teaching it and will be able to help with uni applications for nursing.
As a PP said T levels are ill thought out and may well not last long, like previous government attempts to 'vocationalise' A levels.
I understand your DD's frustration but perhaps encourage her to find out more about the BTEC course. And it is great that she is choosing nursing!

HCAs assist staff in the hospital in various ways. I also recently learned you can be a HCA midwife (can'tremember the actual job title), so whilst you wouldn't help the woman birth the child. You'd be on hand to help the midwife do things so she can focus on the bigger task - e.g get towels, run a bath, etc.

With any HCA, you're in the environment and work very closely with staff, patients, etc. You would learn a great deal on the job and you can actually work your way up to nursing that way as you can get additional training along the way if interested. Is she dead set on going to uni? What kind of nursing does she want to go into? E.g. child, mental health, adult nursing?

She could save money by considering a different route as you don't have to go to uni to become a nurse.

Isn't the problem that pay and conditions are so bad they can't fill the vacancies for qualified staff? It's not just a matter of training more nurses because they need qualified staff to supervise them and they need trainees to stay long enough to become qualified and experienced to boost numbers and replace staff who've retired etc?

If pay improved, conditions would probably naturally improve because more people would stay, there would be fewer vacancies so there would be less compulsory/unpaid overtime/stress due to having too much to do and not enough time to do it?

But the government won't increase pay and properly fund the NHS to pay for the right amount of staff and better pay?

Like is happening in schools, they've said they'll give teachers and other school staff a pay rise, but they won't increase budgets to pay for it, so the only way schools can pay staff more is to operate on fewer staff so they can balance the books

This is what happens when you impose a decade long pay freeze and generally treat essential professional workers like the shit on your shoe. And yet people keep voting in this government.

Definitely doesn’t want to do Alevels. Definitely wants a more practical route and a nursing degree but really not keen on her doing a Btec if it’s now viewed as sub par and in need of being replaced.

It shouldn’t be this bloody difficult. We need nurses!

You can work as a HCA and then do a nursing apprenticeship, although they are relatively scarce and you have to be over 18 (and typically have a certain number of hours as a HCA before you can apply). It's a very practical route into nursing, plus you get paid before you qualify. Apprenticeships are advertised on the NHS jobs website.