To become a biomedical scientist registered with the Health and Care Professions Council, students must complete a degree accredited by the Institute of Biomedical Science (IBMS) and its Registration Training Portfolio. They have to train within a clinical pathology laboratory that has approved training status – this is usually completed during a 12-month placement between the second and third year of the programme. Students will generally begin working on their portfolio only after securing a placement.
However, these opportunities are highly competitive, creating barriers to employability. I worked with NHS Practice Educators to assess employability skills for biomedical science graduates, which highlighted the scale of this problem. A majority of employers (69 per cent) reported that they would be more likely to offer placements if students had already completed some parts of the portfolio at university, our survey found, and 91 per cent of universities confirmed their capacity to support this.
In response, I introduced an extracurricular Portfolio Club in 2022. This allowed students to begin gathering evidence towards the knowledge aspects of personal responsibility and development; equity, diversity and inclusion; communication; professional knowledge; health and safety; and research and development.
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The impact was evident immediately as 100 per cent of students in the 2022-24 cohorts secured placements, with a 250 per cent increase in participation by 2024-25 and a 91 per cent success rate. Employers noted substantial improvements in students’ readiness for placements, particularly in their understanding of portfolio requirements, practical skills and overall professionalism. This initiative was recognised by the IBMS executive head of education, leading to a presentation at the IBMS Congress in September 2023 to share this work as best practice.
Following my presentation “Transforming Placement Success: The Role of the Portfolio Club at the University of Salford” at the Heads of University Centres for Biomedical Sciences (HUCBMS) Conference 2024, multiple institutions expressed interest in adopting the initiative and Nottingham Trent University has since reported a 100 per cent success rate for the 2024-25 cohort.
How does the Portfolio Club work?
The Portfolio Club provides a structured yet flexible framework for early portfolio engagement.
1. Launch the first session. Approximately 1.5 hours required to introduce Health Care Professionals Council and IBMS requirements. Explain the portfolio structure and show examples of module descriptors and evidence. Ask students to map pieces of university work to modules and give them three to four weeks to prepare.
2. Set a date to invite students to the first workshop. Ask them to bring in the work they have mapped. Split them up into groups to focus on a different module each. Students compile their ideas of the work they have mapped and share these during the session. Students then spend two to three weeks focusing on the first module, S1M1, answering set questions and preparing evidence for the second module, S1M2.
3. Set a date for the second workshop and follow the format of the previous session. Students discuss evidence for equality, diversity and inclusion. While students discuss their ideas, use this time to review their answers to the questions set for S1M1. With large groups, I give collective feedback and individual feedback for smaller groups.
4. Repeat this format for the next module. Approximately five sessions are sufficient for students to build and develop their understanding of the portfolio and to prepare for placement applications and interviews. It is not necessary to cover every module – the aim of the portfolio club is to enhance students’ understanding of the HCPC standards of proficiency and how the portfolio is constructed.
Useful tips
Keep the commitment manageable: around 1.5 to two hours per month is sufficient. To ensure sustainability, avoid reviewing work outside of sessions.
Use digital platforms such as Teams for a resource hub but limit access to students who attend the first two sessions. This is to avoid having to repeat information to new students, but if you have the time and capacity to allow new students to join, that is your preference. The sessions I run are fast-paced and I prefer students to have sufficient time to produce good-quality evidence rather than new students struggling to keep up and take poor work to interviews.
Attendance sheets help to monitor engagement.
First-year students are welcome though they will have limited pieces of work to map to the portfolio. Second-year students benefit the most as they are already thinking about applying for placements and have completed the first year, so they have some examples of evidence to submit. First-year students do attend these sessions and often return stronger the following year.
Set expectations – I don’t chase for work; the club is extracurricular and relies on student commitment.
Tahmina Hussain is programme lead for applied biomedical science degree apprenticeship, senior lecturer in biomedical science and HCPC-registered biomedical scientist at Salford University.
She has been shortlisted in the Outstanding Support for Students category in the THE Awards 2025. The full list of nominees can be found here. The winners will be announced at a ceremony on 13 November.
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