Nursing Careers UK

Training routes · Employed and paid

Nursing degree apprenticeships

2 apprenticeship standards let you train for all 5 nursing career paths on this site while employed by an NHS trust and paid a salary. They run from 2 years to 4 years. Training is funded up to £26,000 per apprentice, paid by the employer rather than by you. You finish with the same registration as a full-time student, and no tuition debt.

2 Approved standards Published apprenticeship standards covering a field of nursing
5 Professions covered Out of 5 career paths on this site
£26,000 Funding band maximum Highest band in the set; the lowest is £15,000
Not published Apprenticeship courses listed Not published in the open data

How a nursing degree apprenticeship actually works

You are not a student who happens to work. You are an employee — almost always of an NHS trust, sometimes of a hospice, a local authority or an independent provider — who is released to study. The employer recruits you into a substantive post, pays you a salary from the first day, and pays the university out of the apprenticeship levy. You spend part of each week in academic study and the rest working, and your placement hours are served across services rather than in a single block away from your job.

The qualification at the end is not a lesser one. These are integrated degree apprenticeships: the regulator-approved degree is itself the assessment, so there is no separate end-point assessment bolted on afterwards, and the degree has to be approved by the same regulator that approves the full-time route. You come out registrable on exactly the same terms as somebody who took the full-time route — same protected title, same scope of practice, same starting band.

The funding figures on this page are the maximum the government funding band pays towards your training. They are not your salary, and they are not money that passes through your hands. A levy-paying employer draws the cost from its levy account; a smaller employer pays a share and the government covers the rest. What you are paid is set by the band the post was advertised at, which the employer decides — see NHS pay bands for what those bands are worth.

Every standard, compared

The standards sit at level 5 and 6. Level 6 is a bachelor’s degree; level 7 is a master’s. Duration is the typical time the standard states, worked alongside the job rather than taken full time; some standards run to the same length as the full-time route and some run longer.

Nursing apprenticeship standards
Standard Reference Level Typical duration Funding maximum Leads to
Nursing Associate Apprenticeship ST0827 5 2 years £15,000 Nursing Associate
Registered Nurse Degree Apprenticeship ST0781 6 4 years £26,000 Adult Nurse , Mental Health Nurse , Children's Nurse , Learning Disability Nurse

The standards in detail

Level 5

Nursing Associate Apprenticeship

NMC registration as a Nursing Associate, on the Nursing Associates Part of the register

Level 52 yearsUp to £15,000ST0827
Level 6

Registered Nurse Degree Apprenticeship

NMC registration as a Registered Nurse in the apprentice's field of practice (adult, mental health, learning disabilities or children's nursing)

Level 64 yearsUp to £26,000ST0781

Which professions have a standard, and which do not

You can train by apprenticeship

Adult Nurse, Children's Nurse, Learning Disability Nurse, Mental Health Nurse and Nursing Associate. Each links through to the standard that covers it.

Carry on from here

Where this page’s data comes from

Levels, reference numbers, durations and funding bands are taken from the published apprenticeship standards register; the profession list and the course count come from the regulator’s approved-programme register. Standards are revised and funding bands are reviewed — check the standard’s own page before you rely on a figure.