NHS HCPC registration

I'm doing an IBMS accredited biomedical science course but I was unable to get an NHS placement as the hospital that my uni is linked with only had 6 places available. My goal has always been to work in the NHS. I was talking to my personal tutor about the potential alternate routes that I could go down to achieve HCPC registration and she said that she helped someone with their application for a band 5 position as a trainee biomedical scientist and they didn't do an NHS placement.

I read the description for this job and it seems like the requirements would match what I would have (IBMS accredited degree, looking for HCPC registration) and most of them said they would support you with your portfolio. However, from reading previous threads on here it seems you need to work as an MLA (band 2) first and do your portfolio that way, unless they've changed it? Most of these threads were over 5 years old so they probably have but I'm not sure.

If someone more knowledgeable could help that would be amazing because I'm a bit confused at how this all works.

To work as a Band 5 BMS to my knowledge you need:

a) to be registered with the HCPC - there is absolutely no way you can achieve this without completing the professional portfolio, which is normally done on placement but can be completed while working as a Band 2 MLA with the agreement of your line manager (and this is entirely on top of your actual job so you would need to find ways to do that beyond your usual working hours - coming in on days off or similar potentially).

b) to have prior NHS experience, although this can just be working one day in a Band 2 role in theory.

The bottleneck for you will be registering with the HCPC which you can't do without the professional portfolio which is harder to do (and takes longer) if you don't do it via placement.

It is possible the other student the lecturer referenced went through the STP to become a clinical scientist - this is a different role to biomedical scientist though. The STP just requires a suitable first degree (in a bioscience subject normally unless you are applying to join the medical physics or clinical engineering strands) from the academic perspective, although I gather is very competitive.

Thank you, this is really helpful.

No, she wasn’t talking about the STP. Someone else asked her about it and how they’d go about applying for it and she said she didn’t know what it was.

Strange. Not sure then, unless they've changed how it works in the last year or so?

Your tutor was (almost certainly) talking about a trainee band 5 position - which is not paid at a full band 5 rate.

To complete the portfolio you need to be working in a laboratory that has IBMS training accreditation (most NHS diagnostics labs do, but not all, so make sure you check). It is hard to get a trainee band 5 position without NHS experience as a laboratory assistant but it is doable. I'd apply for both and start applying now, don't wait until you've finished as suddenly everyone in your year will also be applying.

Thank you, so are trainee band 5 BMS and band 5 BMS 2 different things then? And yeah my tutor did say it was a trainee position the student was applying for.

Is it possible for me to try and work as an MLA part time whilst in final year? I saw some people say on here in previous threads and on Reddit that they worked as an MLA twice a week whilst finishing their degree, and the IBMS mention it on their website too so I’m assuming it’s recommended? I just wouldn’t be able to do the HCPC portfolio that way though?