Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to help ensure that the pathway into paramedicine is accessible to (a) mature students and (b) career changers, in the context of the requirement for new paramedics to hold a BSc qualification.

Paramedicine students are able to access the Learning Support Fund (LSF), a non-repayable grant of £5,000 per academic year. Further financial support is available for childcare, travel, and dual accommodation costs while on clinical placements. Students studying paramedicine as a second degree are also able to access the LSF, subject to meeting other eligibility criteria. Apprenticeships offer an alternative training route for those for whom a full-time university course is not practical or preferred, allowing people to earn as they learn.

Pathways can also be shortened, depending on the level of someone's prior learning, via a process called Accreditation of Prior Experiential Learning (APEL), which recognises previous learning and experience. People with non-traditional qualifications can apply to universities to determine if their skills, knowledge, and abilities may be recognised via APEL.