The new scheme for recruitment into graduate entry level Healthcare Scientist training posts in England will start in January 2011 for the September 2011 intake of Scientist Training Programme (STP) trainees - part of the Modernising Scientific Careers programme. Healthcare Scientists in England and Wales work across a range of exciting and challenging specialisms to deliver science-based diagnoses and treatments in virtually all healthcare settings.

NHS Trusts, working in partnership with Strategic Health Authorities and Higher Education Institutions, will offer approximately 200 training posts in Life Sciences, Physics & Engineering or Physiological Sciences to start in October 2011. Successful candidates will join a three-year, fixed term, integrated training programme of workplace-based learning and a Master’s degree in their chosen specialism. Trainees will be employed by a single NHS Trust where they will be required to undertake a range of rotations, working in different departments (and possibly different trusts), before specialisation in the last two years of training. After this period of training, successful trainees will be in a position to apply for NHS posts as Healthcare Scientists and to the appropriate professional register.

The new scheme will help to ensure consistency across the country. There will be a single national timetable for recruitment, national guidelines for the conduct of selection interviews, and assessment centres to ensure all candidates are treated fairly and equally. Science graduates will apply for the training posts through the NHS Jobs website, with shortlisting and selection processes organised and conducted by local Trusts working in established scientific networks.

New scientific networks will be supported through grants to run assessment centres. The new national healthcare scientist trainee recruitment scheme will be managed on behalf of all SHAs by South Central SHA. It replaces the previous scheme, co-ordinated by Northgate Arinso Ltd.

Details of all training posts will be available on the NHS Jobs website www.jobs.nhs.uk

Further details of the scheme and a list of all the posts will be found on NHS Careers website www.nhscareers.nhs.uk

Details will be on both websites in mid-January 2011.