Hi,

I would just like to know what band/salary a trainee engineer should start on bearing in mind he has 18 months NHS experience and a good BSc honours degree in Physics? Would he need to go back to college to gain a more 'hands on' qualification to work in medical equipment management or is the degree suitable? I'm just after some different opinions,

Thanks,

Jordan

Welcome to the forum Jordan.

You haven't mentioned the nature of your 18 months experience in the NHS.

But, assuming that you are now in a biomed department of reasonable size, and therefore in a position to be mentored by veteran technicians ... and are keen and willing to watch, listen, and learn ... then you may not need to return to college.

But you should still expect to be at the bottom of the heap when it comes to pay banding, I would have thought. After all, we all have to start somewhere.

After that, it's up to you. Do you want to be "hands-on" ... or do you have other aspirations? Personally, I would recommend the former.

I was a trainee on 65% of band 6 which worked out to roughly £20 grand, promoted last week and now on the first rung of band 6.

Funny how somebody managed to get you on 65% of a band 6 Dave.
The band 4 is clearly entitled Trainee Medical Technologist.
Just shows how the grades vary across the country, even though A4C was supposed to standardise everything.

Yeah well I worked my butt off.

Did you start out at 65% or were you promoted during your training, personally, if someone does work hard they should be rewarded. I have never been a fan of across the board pay rises.

With the way the NHS employs staff and the AfC bandings work, employing someone as a band 4 could mean that they can never progress to a band 5 or 6 unless a specific post becomes available at that level. This makes the system even more of a "dead men's shoes" situation.

Employing someone at a percentage of the band for the post they are intended to one day fill using the Annexes of the AfC pay scheme is therefore the most sensible (possibly the ONLY) way of ensuring that you get trainees, and are able to keep them once they are sufficiently trained to be promoted to the full grade for the post. Otherwise, they will have to move elsewhere to get the post they were training for.

If you ask for a band 4, it is a hell of a job trying to get them promoted to the next band up later on - it seems to be positively banned!

And congratulations Neoteny.

Remove the bands and pay people what they are worth.

What an excellent idea Clare. Certainly beats all the "discussions" I've had over the years in progressing my role and grade.
Paying people what they are worth is one of the gains that should have be made under A4C. They now have to jump hurdles and prove their knowledge at two points to gain increments, rather than get them automatically.

We're straying off the topic a bit here ... but surely everyone must agree that AfC was just a great big con. An expensive one, too. That is, how much did its implementation cost, not only in £££'s but also in lost man-hours?

I say No to any notion of automatic annual increments. Why reward people simply for "hanging-in"?

But (on the other hand), for those for whom money is the prime motivator, may I refer you to the current thread about so-called "Managed Services".

Paying people for what they are worth sounds good. But what is the measure? Percentage of PM completed?