Health careers: an international student perspective

As an international student or graduate looking for roles within a healthcare setting in the UK, it’s worth considering your options regarding visa requirements.

In addition, many healthcare roles are regulated by the Health and Care Professions Council or other professional bodies. If you have qualified outside of the UK, you may need to undergo registration or have your qualification assessed before you can practice here.

Visas

If you’re interested in working for the NHS, for example, you need to have the right to work in the UK and be eligible for sponsorship or be eligible for a health and care worker visa.

For roles outside of the NHS, you would need to check if the role you were applying to meets the minimum salary requirement for the job you’re applying to. You can do this on the link above if you think that the role would meet the criteria for a Health and Care Worker visa.

For a skilled worker visa, you can check minimum salary requirements here- Skilled Worker visa: Your job - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

If you’re looking to go onto the graduate visa following your course, you can still gain some healthcare related experience on this visa via some of the areas explored above, although it’s always worth checking with the employer what their requirements are and if they’re able to accept a graduate visa.

Accreditation

Many roles in healthcare require professional registration, this includes clinical staff like doctors and dentists but also roles in healthcare science (e.g. if you want to work as a Biomedical Scientist in the NHS or as an audiologist).

The Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) regulates health and care professionals in the UK including clinical and biomedical scientists, allied health professionals and psychologists.

Clinical professionals like doctors, dentists and nurses are regulated by individual bodies e.g. the General Medical Council, the General Dental Council and the Nursing and Midwifery Council.

For healthcare science roles like clinical scientists and biomedical scientists, there are different routes depending on your experience. This can be a complex process and you may be charged a fee to have your qualifications and experience assessed.