Nursing Careers UK

Apprenticeship standard · ST0781

Registered Nurse Degree Apprenticeship degree apprenticeship

The registered nurse degree apprenticeship apprenticeship is a level 6 (bachelor’s degree) standard, reference ST0781. It typically takes 4 years. The funding band pays up to £26,000 towards the training, and your employer — not you — meets it. Finish it and you hold NMC registration as a Registered Nurse in the apprentice's field of practice (adult, mental health, learning disabilities or children's nursing).

Level 6
6 Level Equivalent to a bachelor’s degree
4 years Typical duration Stated by the standard; employers vary this in practice
£26,000 Funding band maximum Towards training costs, paid by the employer — not a salary
Not published Apprentices started Starts are not broken down to this standard in the published figures

What this route actually is

You apply for a job, not for a course. A trust advertises an apprentice post, recruits you into it, and then enrols you on an approved degree with a university it has a contract with. From that day you are staff: on the payroll, in the rota, with annual leave, a pension and a line manager. Study is protected time carved out of your working week, and the rest of the week you are working — first in support roles, then, as your competence grows, in supervised practice towards the same standards a full-time student meets on placement.

This standard runs for about 4 years, longer than the 3 years the full-time route takes, because the academic content is spread thinner across each week while you hold down a job. The £26,000 funding maximum is what the government funding band will pay the training provider. It never reaches your bank account, and it is not a measure of what you will earn. Levy-paying employers — which is every NHS trust of any size — draw the training cost from the levy account they already pay into; smaller employers pay a share and government covers the remainder. Your salary is a separate matter entirely, set by the band the post was advertised at.

At the end you are registrable on identical terms to a full-time graduate. This standard leads to NMC registration as a Registered Nurse in the apprentice's field of practice (adult, mental health, learning disabilities or children's nursing). There is no separate class of registration for people who came in this way, no note on the register, and no ceiling on where you can go afterwards. Employers who recruit newly qualified staff generally value the route, because an apprentice arrives already knowing how an NHS service runs.

Reference number
ST0781
Level
6 (bachelor’s degree)
Status
Approved and open to starts
Typical duration
4 years
Maximum funding
£26,000
Leads to
NMC registration as a Registered Nurse in the apprentice's field of practice (adult, mental health, learning disabilities or children's nursing)

Entry requirements

Employer-sponsored apprenticeship route; the standard full-time route for new entrants typically takes 3.5-4 years. A shortened, accelerated route (around 19-24 months) is available for existing Nursing Associates or Assistant Practitioners who already hold a Level 5 qualification, since NMC standards allow their certificated or experiential prior learning to be recognised against more than 50% of the pre-registration programme.

Two filters sit in front of you and they work in that order. The employer decides whether to shortlist you at all — and here relevant experience, usually as a support worker or assistant practitioner in the same service, counts for a great deal more than it would on a UCAS form. The university then confirms you meet its academic entry criteria for the degree. People who have been out of education for years, and who would find a straight application to a three-year degree daunting, often get in this way.

If you want the full-time entry requirements to compare against, the course pages for adult nurse, mental health nurse, children's nurse and learning disability nurse list the typical offer each university asks for: see the course finder.

How you are assessed

Built on the same NMC education standards as other pre-registration routes: a minimum of 4,600 total programme hours split 50/50 between theory and practice (at least 2,300 practice learning hours), followed by an end-point assessment; successful apprentices are eligible to join the NMC register in their field of practice.

What that means day to day is that you are being judged on two tracks at once. The academic one is the degree — assignments, exams, a dissertation or major project depending on the programme. The practice one is competence in the workplace, signed off by practice educators against the regulator’s standards of proficiency. Falling behind on either is what ends an apprenticeship, and the most common cause is not the academic work but the collision between shift patterns, study days and life outside work.

Providers delivering this standard

What you give up to take it

You need an employer first

There is no clearing round and no central application. If no trust within travelling distance advertises an apprentice post this year, the route is shut to you this year — however strong your application would have been.

There are very few places

A trust typically takes a small handful of apprentices a year, often reserved for staff it already employs, against a full-time cohort many times larger.

You are tied to one geography

Your contract, your university place and your practice hours all sit with one employer. Moving away mid-programme usually means starting again somewhere else, and many posts carry an expectation that you stay on after you qualify.

It is longer, and it is harder work

4 years of full-time employment with a degree on top. There is no long summer vacation, and study time competes with the service’s rota.

The money, honestly compared

The apprenticeship’s financial case is that you earn while you train and take on no tuition debt. The university route’s case is that it is shorter, far more widely available, and carries its own support — student finance, and for nursing courses in England a non-repayable NHS grant on top of it. The schemes that would apply to you on the full-time route are NHS Learning Support Fund; see funding and bursaries for what each one pays and who qualifies.

Whichever way you come in, the destination is the same pay scale: a newly qualified adult nurse starts on band 5, worth £32,073 in England on the 2026/27 scale before any high cost area supplement. See adult nurse pay for the full ladder.

Where this standard takes you

Adult Nurse

Adult nurses assess, plan, deliver and evaluate care for adults of all ages, from young adults to older people, across conditions ranging from heart disease and diabetes to cancer and traumatic injury. They build trusting relationships with patients and families while working in multidisciplinary teams alongside occupational therapists, pharmacists, radiographers and healthcare assistants. Adult nursing is the largest field of nursing practice on the NMC register, and adult nurses work across hospital wards, outpatient clinics, patients' homes and community settings.

3 approved coursesStarts at band 5

Mental Health Nurse

Mental health nurses support and promote recovery for people experiencing a wide range of mental health conditions, from medication management to recommending therapies and structured social activities. They build trusting relationships quickly and are trained to identify the risk of self-harm or harm to others, working closely with GPs, psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers and occupational therapists. Mental health nurses practise across psychiatric wards, specialist units and community settings, including clients' own homes.

3 approved coursesStarts at band 5

Children's Nurse

Children's nurses care for patients from newborns through to adolescents, interpreting behaviour and non-verbal cues to spot rapid deterioration in children who cannot always describe their symptoms clearly. They work closely with parents and guardians alongside the child, and as part of multidisciplinary teams including doctors, play specialists, psychologists and social workers. Children's nurses practise across hospital wards, day-care centres, outpatient clinics and community or home settings.

3 approved coursesStarts at band 5

Learning Disability Nurse

Learning disability nurses work to improve or maintain a person's physical and mental health, reduce barriers to independent living, and support people to lead fulfilling lives, acting as educators, advocates and care coordinators. They work alongside GPs, psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, teachers, occupational therapists, speech and language therapists and physiotherapists. Learning disability nurses practise in residential and nursing homes, people's own homes, schools, specialist units such as prisons, GP practices and hospitals.

3 approved coursesStarts at band 5

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Other nursing standards

Where this page’s data comes from

Level, reference number, duration and funding band are taken from the published apprenticeship standard ST0781; course counts come from the regulator’s approved-programme register, and the salary figure from the Agenda for Change pay circular. Standards are revised and funding bands reviewed, so check the register before relying on a figure.