Anyone know how hard it is to get on a midwifery course?

[EvaBlu]

My niece (who lives with us) wants to be a midwife. She is 20. Has BBC at a level in biology, psychology and chemistry. She’s spent the last two years working as a nanny.

Does anyone know if she likely to struggle to get in with those grades? Online it looks like she might but she’s a fabulously caring and organised girl and I know she’s be great.

Are some courses easier to get into than others? All tips gratefully received.

Depends on the uni but yes quite likely at a lot of places. Nearest uni to me is very competitive and asks for AAB, but I think takes people with BBA. Others aren’t as high. She needs to look at prospectuses, go to open days and get some experience......women or caring experience above and beyond child care.

Midwifery is about women not babies. So HCA role in a hospital, even on the general side, care home work, women’s aid, that sort of thing.

Some uni's would be happy with that, the most important thing is to get relevant work experience - being a Nanny wouldn't be considered relevant. Also in personal statement WHY she wants to be a midwife. I used to coordinate the NCT locally and quite often students would ask to come to the group's to chat to pregnant couples and new parents and generally help. I'm not sure if this helped with the application but a lot of colleges used to approach us to see if we would take students. Good luck to your Niece!

Thank you both so much. She is a hard worker: nannies all day, waitresses all night, seasonal shop work during her nanny holiday. But she definitely needs to get more health related experience. She has done advanced first aid as part of her nanny qualification and she looks after a child with some health problems but I know that’s not enough.

yes, midwifery isn’t nursing and in any interview she’d be expected to demonstrate an understanding of that and would probably be asked why she’s chosen midwifery over paed nursing.

The other thing she needs to be aware of when she applies she needs to show recent study, so within the last three years. If she finished her a levels two years ago if she doesn’t apply soon she’ll need to start another part time course at college to show she’s not got out the habit of studying.

Edge Hill University want 128 UCAS points for their Midwifery degree. Does she have that?

She has 112, most unis ask for 120 for midwifery. Some such as Northampton and I think Cumbria ask for a bit lower. However I do know people who got less than 120 who got into unis who ask for 120.

I wouldn’t be surprised if next UCAS round entry requirements for midwifery go down slightly.

It is really competitive. Some people on my course applied 5 years in a row before getting accepted.
Doing a health related qualification will help. So hnc or equivalent.

Midwifery has always been extremely competitive - however, entry requirements for next year are going down. At least the university I trained at have gone from wanting BBB to BBC. I've also heard the application rate has gone down massively at the uni attached to my hospital, unsurprisingly due to the introduction of tuition fees.

She doesn't necessarily have to have healthcare experience. I had a bit (did some volunteering in a hospital but more admin) but otherwise got in first time with none. Got interviews everywhere I applied to bar one which was KCL which is very hard to get into. She has to be very clear in her mind why she wants to do it and what her transferable skills are. For what it's worth, I work with a midwife who was a nanny before she trained. It's all about understanding the role of a midwife - saying how she's got time management through her previous jobs which are relevant to the role, working in customer facing roles so has excellent communication skills, using to dealing with upset people etc. etc.

Some volunteering definitely wouldn't hurt though. Doesn't have to be directly maternity related as that's extremely difficult to get. She could try asking to spend a day with an independent midwife/doula/lactation consultant but otherwise anything health related. I did volunteering with the red cross. Going to NCT groups if possible is a good idea as well.

She has to really want it though. The application stage/interviewing was very stressful - the course even more so. I was 24 when I started but not that worldly and it was very, very hard. It's by far the hardest thing I've ever done. I had to toughen up emotionally quite quickly. Not that I'm trying to put her off - I'm constantly amazed by how mature and incredible the young students are. But you have to be emotionally resilient and there's so many hoops to jump through before qualifying.

Anyway, the bottom line is, if she wants it enough, she'll get a place. I had all sorts of random experience that wasn't really relevant but I knew the role inside out and I was passionate at interview. That's what ultimately got me in.

Midwifery has always been competitive, has she considered applying for a maternity assistant job? That would give her relevant experience, she could apply to her local hospital's staff bank as a way of getting her foot in the door.
There is also the possibility of training as a nurse and doing conversion later on in some areas. I was going to do this originally as I really wanted to be a midwife but it was insanely competitive to get on the course. I did an elective in midwifery during my training and actually found it a bit boring, seeing a succession of healthy pregnant women was lovely but a bit dull and I realised I would struggle emotionally if something was wrong.
I have been a nurse for 12 years now and absolutely love my job, it's diverse and rewarding.

It might have changed recently as a friends dd got into Oxford brookes at clearing this year having just finished some sort of access course. She is 22

Access course is equivalent to 3 A Levels. Most places want at least 30/45 D at access

I did access and am now 3rd year nursing - took my friend 4 attempts to get on midwifery course. Uni offered 120 nursing places but only 19 midwifery