Balancing work while studying an Access to Medicine Course
Wondering if you can work alongside an Access to Medicine course as mature student? You’ve come to the right place! In this post I’ll be providing financial organisation tips, funding sources and sharing insights on how other students balanced their workload.
As a mature student, it’s likely you’ll have some form of employment that you really can’t afford to lose and bigger financial commitments than younger students. During university, you would receive SFE payments to contribute to living costs but with access courses, there’s limited funding available.
🔎 Be realistic and do your research
This is the most important step before even applying and is essential for balancing your studies with work and other commitments. It is a pivotal decision and should not be taken lightly! There are many students that have dropped out at the start of the course because they made the assumption that it’s an easy route into medicine and haven’t considered all of the factors. You need to take everything into consideration… course content, reputation, location, logistics, financial planning, time commitments, student experiences etc.
Be brutally honest with yourself about your ability to commit to the course. Consider your current workload and personal responsibilities. The more you’ve thought about every option and avenue, the less you’ll be blind-sighted by the workload and the more this ensures your long-term success.
🗣️ Communicate with your employers
It’s important to be transparent with your employer... if you can
Being transparent about your intentions can help maintain a good relationship and lay the groundwork for flexibility and support during your studies. By law, you can submit a flexible-working request from day one of your job (according to the new law in 2024) you employer has to read and respond to this in a reasonable way.
There are many different types of flexible working requests:
- part-time hours
- staggered hours
- remote working
- working from home
- hybrid working
- flexi-time
- job sharing
- compressed hours
- annualised hours
If your flexible working request is denied, seek help from Citizens Advice. If your flexible-working request has been approved, ensure that any changes to your work schedule are legally recognised and agreed on, this helps avoid misunderstandings or disputes later on. It’s ideal to call or email the college to request important term dates and relay these to your manager, it’ll show proactiveness and you may come up with a solution together.
🗓️ Be savvy with annual leave
Annual leave & study leave
During the first week, you’ll have your college timetable for your lectures but I advise taking this a step further and request the examination dates + teaching schedules ready to organise your studying, annual leave, working schedule and plan for the entire of the year.
The way you choose to book annual leave will be dependent on the job you have, the working hours you’re committed to and what your priorities in life are. In the UK, you’re legally entitled to 5.6 weeks paid annual leave per year if you work full time. Annual leave is reduced when you work part-time, depending on the hours you work per week. Find out how much annual leave you’re entitled to if you reduce your working hours. If you work holiday in public services, you’re automatically given a day of annual leave in lieu!
Legally, you’re entitled to request study leave from your employer once per year. It can be used to attend trainings, conferences and external courses. Employers may choose to pay for your time or towards the fees of the training/course (if it benefits them) but typically it’s unpaid.
This might be a good option if you have used all your annual leave and still require time off to study (especially during exam season) or if you won’t receive much annual leave entitlement due to your reduced working hours.
If you work within the healthcare sector… you may benefit from study leave as the Access to Medicine course will benefit your employer, so it’s worth enquiring!
💸 Get your financials in order
Organisation
Sounds obvious… right? But you’re going to have a huge drop in income and you’re going to have to make sacrifices on top of this so it’s important to know your finances inside out. I personally bought a simple Google Sheets financial spreadsheet off Etsy for less than £10! Click here to look through financial spreadsheets on Etsy.
Utilise unsociable working hours & financial packages
By taking advantage of evening/night, weekend and holiday hours. You’ll receive additional payments just for doing the same work that you’d ordinarily do throughout the week. This does mean you might lose out socially on weekends or holiday periods, but earning double or triple your hourly rate on these days will massively help during the access course.
If you’re planning on re-locating… to a different area for the access course, some employers offer relocation packages to help facilitate the costs of rent, buying a home and moving costs-amenities etc. They may also offer a bonus payment for simply starting the job role! College of West Anglia provide financial packages to help cover the costs of relocation accommodation, travel and study materials which we all found incredibly helpful!
Student status
You might think student discount only applies to university students….
You’re wrong! Did you know that if you’re enrolled onto a college course you can be eligible for a National Rail 16-25 railcard (even if you’re older than 26) and UNIDAYS? All you need to do is provide your college email after you’ve enrolled and viola, you can save money on food, technology, travel and more!
You’re exempt from council tax (this includes college courses). However, you can only qualify for council tax exemption if you’re in a residence with other students or if you live alone. Your course must last at least 1 year and involve a minimum of 21 hours study per week. The college will need to print out a letter for you to confirm your student status.
If you only need to resit one GCSE…. most colleges provide the option of resitting one GCSE for free during your access course which could save you more than £300 in fees!
If you’re struggling with finances...
No matter how organised and prepared for life we think we are…. Life events happen that knock our finances sideways. Everyone, at some point has struggled with finances one way or another but you don’t have to struggle alone, there are resources, external charities and government help to help you cope during these tough times. Below are some resources that could help, if you find yourself struggling…
- Turn2Us | List of grants, bursaries and resources for those who are struggling financially
- Universal Credit | An option if you’re in full-time education or working part-time
- Surviving Economic Abuse | Financial help particularly for financial abuse survivors
- Cosaraf | Hardship Fund offers for those experiencing financial difficulty of all faiths
- Greggs Foundation | Hardship Funds towards white goods, utilities and food
- RCN Foundation | Financial assistance for registered nurses and healthcare assistants
- Citizens Advice | Provide legal, housing and debt advice + cost of living grants
- Money Saving Expert | Provides advice on the cheapest deals + funding opportunities
- DebtCamel | Debt Advisor with 20+ years experience + offers FREE advice
Other resources
- Insight into College of West Anglia’s Access to Medicine Course
- Term dates at College of West Anglia
- Flexible working requests information Gov.UK
- Struggling with finances? | Turn2Us Grant Search
- Finance to Medicine | Follow Awais’s Journey on TikTok
- How to Maximise Annual Leave in 2025 for UK and Ireland
- Flexible working request | Annualised Hours Contract – What is it?
