February 25, 2025, by Jackie Thompson

My journey on the Scientist Training Programme (STP)

By Danyaal Howie, MSc Drug Discovery student

Image by Matvevna from Pixabay

I’m a first-year trainee in pharmaceutical science on the Scientist Training Programme (STP). Here, I’ll talk about my experience on the programme so far, including what I’m involved with daily and the application process. 

What I do in my role

My role has many different parts to it, but all of them relate to learning and understanding more about how Pharmacy Technical Services in the NHS work – specifically radiopharmacy, aseptics, and production units. These are parts of hospital services involved with manufacturing medicines not prepared in a pharmacy, such as radiopharmaceuticals for scans, or preparing medicines aseptically such as chemotherapy to treat cancers.

The programme is organised so that in the first year, you rotate between different areas in your specialty so you can observe and reflect on how they operate. You develop and are assessed throughout the programme through different means:

• there is a part-time MSc to study for and assignments to complete as part of this with 20% of your contracted time can be taken as study leave
• an ePortfolio, where you need to evidence and write-up different training activities you complete while on rotation. These activities include observing and reflecting on activities done in a department, completing practical skills, and having case-based discussions about aspects of the service.

You are a supernumerary member of staff in your home department for the whole three years of the STP. This means you aren’t directly involved in the day-to-day running of the service or its operations. However, I often get involved with different quality improvement projects relating to good manufacturing practice (GMP) under the supervision of my training officer, such as trending data, updating procedures, and equipment requalification and validation. Personally, I’m finding the variety of training and work activities very engaging, and this is my favourite part about the programme.

My experience applying

I found out about the STP in my first year of university, and since then I tried to tailor my experience outside of university to what I thought would strengthen my application into it, as I found the idea of directly applying science to patient care to better health outcomes compelling.

Alongside my studies, I worked part-time as a patient information officer at an NHS Trust for over two years. I was also generally interested in working in the pharmaceutical industry, specifically in early phase drug discovery, and I applied to and was rejected by countless other graduate schemes!

My experience of applying to the STP was that the process took a long time and had multiple steps. It started in January and I received a job offer in July.

Step 1: I had to complete an application in January and this included writing a reflective piece of writing on why I would make a good trainee.

Step 2: There was then a situational judgement test to complete a few days later.

Step 3: I found out I’d progressed to the interview stage in April. At this stage, I was asked to rank my preferences of which locations were offering STP positions based on where I wanted to be placed for the programme.

Step 4: I was allocated a national interview in May, and this is interview was held in June. My interview consisted of eight questions:

• • one question on why I wanted to apply to the STP
  • two questions on science specific to my chosen specialty
  • two questions on general science
  • three questions on general qualities such as leadership, equality, diversity & inclusion, and continuous professional development.

Step 5: Received a job offer in July

I didn’t make it to interview the first time I applied, but I reapplied the next year and got accepted into the programme.

If you’re thinking about applying

My advice to people applying to the STP would be to have a strong understanding of the NHS, the role of healthcare science within it, and the potential impact of your chosen healthcare science specialty on healthcare.

You can then relate your own experiences to the role and show why you’d be a good fit. Don’t feel discouraged if you haven’t got as much experience as you’d want, or if you feel your experiences aren’t relevant – the different people in my cohort come from all sorts of backgrounds and have varying levels of education and experience. Some people have just graduated and have no previous NHS experience, some people have completed an MSc, and some people had a PhD.

Also, even though it’s challenging, try to stay motivated if you don’t get accepted first time. The STP is quite a competitive programme –  check out the the applicant: post ratios on the NHS website.

Find out more about healthcare science on our website (including advice on applying for the STP) and visit the STP website containing has a wide range of excellent resources. You can also book an appointment with an adviser to help you craft your application and prepare for interviews.

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