How to become: UK career paths 2026/27
Careers guides tell you the entry route and a salary range. These pages add the two things that actually decide what lands in your account: every rung of the published pay ladder, and the take-home at each rung with the correct pension treatment.
Career paths
- Registered Nurse £32,073 to £56,515 gross
Every route into nursing ends in the same two places: the NMC register, and the Agenda for Change pay scale. This page puts the entry routes, every spine point from Band 5 to Band 7 and the actual take-home at each one together. The funding, the loan plan and the nursing associate route are the England ones; students from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland go through their own student finance process.
- Teacher £34,069 to £52,835 gross
The routes to qualified teacher status differ in what they cost and in whether you are paid while you train, but every one of them ends on the same statutory pay scale. This page puts them, every advisory pay point on the main and upper ranges, and the take-home at each one together.
- Police Officer £31,164 to £68,982 gross
Five of the six ways into policing put you on the payroll from the day you join. The sixth is a degree you fund yourself before you apply, so it can arrive with student loan debt attached (Plan 5 for a Student Finance England course started from August 2023, Plan 2 for Student Finance Wales) and starts on exactly the same pay point.
- Paramedic £32,073 to £56,515 gross
Paramedic is a protected title, so every route ends at the same place: the HCPC register. What happens after that is unusual for Agenda for Change, because the NHS describes the move from Band 5 to Band 6 as something that typically happens after two years. The ladder below follows that route rather than the whole spine.