Apprenticeships
Apprenticeships are available in health informatics , intelligence analysis and libraries, archives, records and information management services.
Graduate schemes
Those with an undergraduate degree (eg maths or statistics, social science, geography, health informatics ) may enter a graduate training programme (eg analyst training). The NHS Graduate Management Training Scheme has a health informatics strand for graduates with a relevant degree. Those with a postgraduate degree (eg MSc or PhD in Public Health or Epidemiology ) may enter a postgraduate training programme (eg in Field Epidemiology with PHE ).
Working with Public Health England
Public Health England (PHE ) runs a two-year postgraduate Field Epidemiology training programme which aims to provide state-of-the-art training to those who already have public health experience and want to work in field epidemiology .
Within Public Health England, there are also a small number of training schemes for those wishing to enter public health knowledge and intelligence roles. PHE also offers publicly available short courses, lasting 1-2 weeks, for the development of local analysts. These courses tend to focus on introducing staff to work in public health, understanding data sources and techniques, applying them in practical settings, and management skills. However, much learning takes place on the job rather than through formal schemes.
More senior staff are often recruited into the public health knowledge and intelligence roles having gained other relevant professional experience (eg from roles in the NHS, PHE or local authorities) possibly including formal registration with a professional body (such as the General Medical Council , General Dental Council or UK Public Health Register ). Development then comes through routes such as university modules or a Master’s degree in Public Health.