Tell me about accreditation...biomedical sciences

Hi all
I would like to know about all the accreditation I need to be aware of before applying for a biomedical sciences undergraduate degree

What does IBMS mean? Is that the same as the society of biology? What about being approved by HCPC?

Biomedical Science is a course offered by many university however only some of them actually offer the accredited degree. Accredited degrees have compulsory modules which are approved by the Health and Care Protection Council (HCPC). It is best to pick a university which offers a placement year, so that one can complete their portfolio which is what is required during the years training you will receive by an NHS lab to become a BMS. Upon graduating you will get to become a member of the IBMS (Institute of Biomedical Science) and thus be able to practice as a biomedical scientist within a NHS lab.

So I would need to do a placement year inbetween? I thought that was just fr experience...
Also what if the course is accredited by the society of biology? How is that different?
And how long will it take to do what I have to do after an undergraduate IBMS accredited degree? (or one that isn't accredited and just do a placement year?)

SORRY for sooo many questions🙊

i) The placement year is mandatory because you have to complete a portfolio of training and an oral exam before you can obtain your certificate of competence when you graduate. The certificate of competence is awarded by the institute of Biomedical Science (IBMS) that you can use to register as a biomedical scientist with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) (the above poster is incorrect in this regard, you need to register with the HCPC to practise as a biomedical scientist, joining the IBMS is mostly optional, though they do offer additional qualifications that you must be a member to apply for.)
ii) degrees accredited by the society of biology are completely different and will not let you practise as a biomedical scientist - only the FOUR year IBMS accredited degree with placement year in NHS hospital will allow you to register with the HCPC on graduation of your degree.
If you do any other degree apart from this one and want to be a biomedical scientist you will still have a huge way to go since you will both need to have your degree assessed by the IBMS and they will say you need to do certain top up modules in order to reach the requisite level of knowledge AND you will have to find an NHS lab in which to become a trainee biomedical scientist and complete the portfolio in order to be deemed competent to practise as an autonomous biomedical scientist.
You CANNOT find degrees that are not accredited by the IBMS but offer the placement year in an NHS lab, just degrees that offer a year out, as you say, for experience.
In short, you need to do the IBMS-accredited biomedical science degree with placement year in NHS lab. You also must at least complete the portfolio during your year even if you then haven't been examined (that can be arranged in your final year of degree). Then you will be able to register with the HCPC when you graduate and can apply for band 5 biomedical scientist jobs.

Wow...😊 thanx
did u do biomedical sciences?
Can I still work in companies such as GSK after doing a placement year and no IBMS course? Will the salary not be as high?
Also, why do so many people just want to work with the nhs and get IBMS?
And finally how long does this whole certificate of competence process roughly take after an undergraduate biomedical sciences degree?

Hey yes I studied biomedical sciences. You can still work at GSK if you do a degree with a placement year. Think of biomedical science like medicine. In medicine you do 4 years of education and then practise in the wards before becoming a doctor. In biomedical science you have 3 years of an ACCREDITED degree and a years training before you can actually call yourself a biomedical scientist (by registering with the HCPC).
although, if you want to work in GSK, you'll probably want to take the path I took and studied a PhD after my BSc since GSK is real high profile research you will need proof that you can function on that level.
It's not really that so many people are wanting to work as a BMS in the NHS, it's that almost every university teaches a variant of biomedical science and there are far more graduates than job opportunities (and of those graduates the vast majority either did NOT study an accredited degree or do the necessary placement)
If you do the placement during university then the certificate of competence needs to be completed in a year. Otherwise you will have to find a lab to train you and the training could take 2years plus since you'll most likely have to do it part time.

A phd? Lol that mustve taken a long time? I might just do a masters haha
But should i apply for a placement year in ucas or can i do that after if I just apply for 3 years first on ucas?
I didnt realise it was as competitive as you are saying now...

It's taken 3 years to research and I'm still partially writing up the last bits now. I have until next October to submit though. A relevant MSc would help though. Not with actually getting a job, because you have to have an accredited BSc biomedical science degree and the certificate of competence to be a biomedical scientist. If you have both of those an MSc may help the interviewers choose you over someone else, but the real reason to do the MSc is for career progression.

On UCAS there should be separate codes for 3 year and 4 year degrees. Apply for your choices by choosing the code that corresponds to the 4-year course. I know there was one person in my year that switched from the 3-year to the 4-year because someone dropped out but there is usually a fixed number of 4-year places (around 40).

It's not really competitive - unfortunately the majority of people who graduate in biomed will have neither the accredited degree nor the certificate of competence but expect to be able to be a biomedical scientist only to find they can't. It's a lie the universities do next to nothing to combat. I know many people in my lab who are medical lab assistants (MLA) doing an admin and basic non patient-impacting lab work who have biomedical science degrees because they want to try to get the certificate of competence by shadowing biomedical scientists while they work as MLAs. It's the case of many jobs that the market are saturated, and working for GSK or industry is the same but that may change by the time you graduate!

oh ok gd luck
I will apply for the 4 year one then and doing a masters is kind of expensive for me so i wouldnt do it i think..
Ah well, thank you very much for all your help

It's very strange that the most academic universities are the ones without IBMS accreditation

I thought it was as well until I realised that the most academic universities don't focus as much on the practical skills, which are the skills biomedical scientists working in lab testing will need.

Sorry for randomly jumping in to the conversation to say that! I wanted to go into lab testing until I realised my university didn't have one course with IBMS accreditation

You're welcome! It is best to do the 4 year IBMS-accredited degree so then you can come out of your degree and apply straight for registration with the HCPC and apply for biomedical scientist jobs. It's best to do this right the first time or you could be spending a further 3 or 4 years trying to transfer and apply for equivalence. For example, I don't know if I mentioned this but in my lab, about a third of the medical lab assistants have either a BMS degree or biochemistry and are at varying stages of applying for equivalence.
Definitely labs, and especially private labs working off NHS hospitals offer very good training funds you can dip into for MSc and on.
Best of luck, it's a very exciting career and methods are changing all the time!

Yeah I know someone in a similar situation! Personally I think I'd still prefer the prestige the top unis entitle but idk if I afford to lose job opportunities like that.

Go talk to the senior staff at your local NHS pathology laboratories, they'll tell you that you're our prestigious university means jack. Go to Leeds Teaching Hospitals various pathology laboratories and you'll meet a hell of a lot of University of Bradford graduates, not University of Leeds. Why? Because UOB concentrates on practical skills. At another pathology laboratory I spent some time at I met a lot of Sheffield Hallam graduates working as Band 6 biomedical scientists. University of Hull graduate working as a Band 7 senior BMS.

NHS employers won't look twice at where you studied. They want you to have HCPC registration. Beyond that they don't actually care and that's from the mouth of a senior BMS who sits on the interview panels. HCPC registration tells them that you are a competent biomedical scientist and that, is that.

Thanks for the reply! it's a good point that you are making. However I think that if I studied biomed I'd prefer to get into further study up to PhD and then do research (I'm very passionate about this). Do you get any freedom for choosing your research while working for the NHS?

The NHS is a practical career route not a research one.

Exactly... I never said I wanted to work for the NHS, but I don't know exactly how bad the situation with grants for research is so that I will have to do that kind of work thanks for the insight anyway.