Public health apprenticeships benefit apprentices, employers, and the wider community by offering a debt-free route to a professional qualification, developing a highly skilled workforce, and improving health outcomes for populations.
Benefits for apprentices
- Earn while you learn: Apprentices receive a salary throughout their training, developing professional skills without incurring student debt. For degree-level programs, this means earning a degree without paying tuition fees.
- Gain practical, real-world experience: Training combines academic study with on-the-job learning and experience. This allows apprentices to immediately apply knowledge to practical, real-world public health scenarios.
- Structured career progression: Apprenticeships provide a clear pathway for career development and can lead to specialist or management roles. Upon completion, apprentices often achieve a recognised qualification and professional accreditation*, such as registering as a Public Health Practitioner (*Applicable to the L6 Public Health Practitioner Degree Apprenticeship)
- Diverse skills and opportunities: Public health roles are diverse, covering areas from health protection and improvement to data analysis and project management. Apprenticeships give individuals the skills to enter various settings, including the NHS, local authorities, and national health agencies.
Benefits for employers and the health system
- Attract and develop a diverse workforce: Apprenticeships attract new talent from a wide range of backgrounds, fostering diversity and inclusion within the workforce. This allows employers to build a workforce that better reflects the community they serve.
- Improve staff retention and loyalty: Investing in an existing or new employee through an apprenticeship provides and opportunity for employers to 'grow their own talent'. this in turn increases their morale, job satisfaction, and loyalty. This leads to higher staff retention rates and reduces recruitment costs.
- Increase productivity and innovation: By training staff in-house, apprentices become productive team members from day one. They bring fresh ideas and current best practices from their academic training, which can lead to increased efficiency and a culture of continuous development.
Apprenticeships are available at multiple levels to support the public health workforce, including entry-level programs and integrated degrees that lead directly to professional registration Click in the links below for further information.
- Level 3 – Community Health and Wellbeing
- Level 4 – Associate Project Manager
- Level 6 – Public Health Practitioner
- Level 6 – Environmental Health Practitioner
- Level 7 – Systems Thinking Practitioner
- Level 7 - Health and Care intelligence
For further information on Public Health Apprenticeships, please don't hesitate to contact the OHID Public Health Workforce Team yhphworkforce@dhsc.gov.uk
| Document Title | Publication Date |
|---|---|
| Apprenticeships for the VCSE Sector - Flyer | 28 September 2023 |
| Apprenticeships in Public Health - Slide deck | 01 June 2022 |
| An Employer's Role in Ensuring Quality Apprenticeship Training Provision | 25 April 2022 |
