₦airaland Forum

Elderss:
It's quite difficult and rare to find a locum band 5 BMS role. Most band 5 jobs are on permanent basis and are given to candidates who have completed at least a year UK relevant training or work experience.

While you can get a locum band 6 job, your 2 years Nigerian experience won't be enough... You are like a fresher into the career.

So, you may have have to go through few months volunteer jobs as Omopapa mentioned earlier.
Once that's completed, then you can begin to apply for locum Band six roles.

BTW, what's your speciality?

Wow, interesting. I am a Haematologist/Blood Transfusion Scientist. Thanks for your reply between.

Elderss:
Having a UK work experience could make it easier to get BMS roles but not compulsory.
Do you have any previous work experience?
What band roles have you been applying to?

Good day, thanks for your reply.
Yes I do have 2 years work experience (Internship and NYSC) + some Volunteer jobs .
I usually apply for Band 5 jobs roles.

omopapa:
You might have to fine tune your application to suite with their requirements, I can help with that. Also minimum UK experience of 3 months with luck shld be enough to land you your first job

That would be great. I would really appreciate any form of assistance from your end. God willing this COVID-19 thing clears out soon.

omopapa:
Having the HCPC registration qualifies u as a biomedical scientist but because you don’t have UK laboratory experience (this is me assuming) you might want to volunteer to gain some experience to equip u for when u attend interviews.

Upon arriving the uk, liase with ur personal tutor to help u secure a place in an NHS lab affiliated with ur uni. As a volunteer u are given priority when job offer arises.

Create a profile on https://apps.trac.jobs/ or https://www.jobs.nhs.uk/ these are the 2 official NHS job websites and set job alerts so that u are notified daily of new jobs.

You can only work as locum if u have the UK experience. Haematology in the uk for example is mostly automated unlike in Nigeria, volunteering will give u insight on the type of equipments and how they are operated. Health and Safety is a BIG deal in UK, whereas we don’t necessary give importance to them in Nigeria. These are few of the things u will have to learn to perfect ur job hunting.

If I were you, I will pretend like I don’t have the HCPC registration when applying for jobs and volunteering. This is because the expectation from you will be high and they might query ur competence if you can’t perform some “simple procedure”.

The good news is with atleast 3 months UK lab experience + your HCPC registration + 2 years experience from Nigeria, your chances of securing a job as a biomedical scientist is VERY high.

However, securing a job does not guarantee automatic leave to remain. That’s another journey and struggle on its own.

Thank you Omopapa for your reply. I already have accounts with the different job sites you mentioned. Nothing encouraging has come out of it because I do not have UK work experience. I just needed to know how many months experience I would need to be accepted in UK. I have read and taken note of your advice and would act accordingly. As for ILR, God would perfect that one for us, we just need to start the race and start it well. Thank you so much once again.

LaaJiblik:
You are already sitting on Gold.
That HCPC registration is fantastic!!!
If I may suggest, go to www.indeed.co.uk or www.reed.co.uk
Create an account and create job search alerts around your school, use the school postcode.
Always read the JD of posted adverts. Infact, be applying for the jobs sef.
When you reach Uni in September, you may wish to volunteer a few hours per week in an NHS Trust lab near you.
When you reach the UK, do not limit your job searches to ‘low hanging fruits’ of Care work, security work, warehouse work, retail work or hospitality. Go for Gold. You may even get some locum positions in labs.
That HCPC wey you get so, Na golden ticket.

Thank you so much for your response. I really appreciate.

omopapa:
University of Ulster is one of the cheapest universities offering biological science courses and they are accredited by IBMS both their undergraduate and post graduate.

You should get ur documents ready for HCPC accreditation via the international route or better still send your degree to IBMS for assessment before going to HCPC

Try to get lab experience in the UK even if it’s unpaid by volunteering, this will increase ur chances a lot. Infact there’s high chance that if u volunteer in an NHS lab they might offer you a job as u have already been trained by them.

Hello Omopapa, I am a registered Biomedical Scientist with the HCPC, I have an Unconditional offer to Study Biomedical Laboratory Science in Sheffield Hallam University to resume in September. I would like you to advice me on how to go about building my UK work experience portfolio and I would also like to know what are my chances of getting job with NHS considering my 2years work experience here in 9ja.