NHS Graduate Scheme Salary 2027 (£31,276), Specialisms, How Competitive

The NHS Graduate Management Training Scheme (GMTS) pays a minimum starting salary of £31,276 for 2027 entry, with the opportunity of a rise to £33,681 after 12 months, subject to satisfactory probation on your work placement and academic performance, plus a High Cost Area Supplement where your placement location qualifies. All five specialisms (General Management, Finance, Human Resources, Digital – Health Informatics, and Engineering & Estates Management) advertise the same minimum starting salary, and the Scheme says it gets tens of thousands of applications for a few hundred places: it is recruiting around 250 trainees for September 2027.

This guide sets out how the salary is calculated, what you earn in each year and in London, what the pay looks like after the Scheme, how the five specialisms differ, and what the official figures say about how competitive it is. Every figure comes from the Scheme's own pages or the NHS Employers pay tables, linked at the end; anything we worked out ourselves is labelled.

NHS GMTS Pay and benefits and About pages, read 1 Nov 2026.

The Scheme ties trainee pay to the NHS Agenda for Change (AfC) pay scales. It says the minimum starting salary is 65% of the top pay point of Band 6. NHS Employers lists that point as £48,117 from 1 April 2026; 65% of it is £31,276.05, the Scheme's £31,276. The cap for current NHS employees, £40,899, is the Scheme's stated 85% of the same point (£40,899.45). The Scheme gives no percentage for the 12-month figure: £33,681 works out at just under 70% of £48,117 (70% would be £33,681.90). The checks are our arithmetic.

The figure has changed between intakes: an archived copy of the Scheme's pay page from January 2025 advertised £29,225 to start, with the opportunity of £31,473 after 12 months; the page read on 1 November 2026 advertises £31,276 and £33,681.

The Scheme pays the NHS High Cost Area Supplement (HCAS) "where applicable", depending on where your placement is. It does not print the amount. An archived April 2026 copy of its entry page said non-London regions did not qualify for HCAS; that wording is no longer on the page, so do not treat it as the current rule. Under Agenda for Change from 1 April 2026, HCAS is 20% of basic pay in inner London (at least £5,794 and at most £8,746), 15% in outer London (at least £4,870 and at most £6,137) and 5% in fringe areas (at least £1,346 and at most £2,270). If those AfC rules were applied to the trainee salary, the totals would be (our illustration, rounded to the nearest pound):

Treat the supplement rows as an illustration, not a promise: check with the Scheme whether a supplement applies and how much. Trainees stay in one region, but their 2 or 3 placements can be at different organisations and sites, and the Scheme ties HCAS to the placement location, so the supplement may not be the same for the whole Scheme.

The Scheme says the average salary in trainees' first NHS role after finishing is around £44,000, with some earning more and some less depending on the role they secure. It adds that possible future earnings reach up to £90,000 as a Director, or £100,000 and more as an NHS Chief Executive. For scale, £44,000 sits inside the 2026/27 AfC Band 6 range (£39,959 to £48,117) and below the start of Band 7 (£49,387); that comparison is ours, and the Scheme does not say which band its graduates join.

Employment on the Scheme is fixed-term, and a job afterwards is not guaranteed. Towards the end, the Scheme helps trainees find their first substantive NHS post, and it says more than 80% of trainees who complete the Scheme go straight on to NHS roles.

For 2027 entry the Scheme offers five specialist pathways. Each pathway page lists the same £31,276 salary (current NHS employees may start higher, as above); what differs is the length, the qualification you study for, and who can apply.

The Finance pathway leads to the CIPFA qualification: 12 exams, including Management Accounting, Financial Accounting, Audit and Assurance, and Financial Management, with a strategic case study at the end of the Scheme; the pathway lasts two years and six months. You do not need an accounting background, as the learning starts at a basic level, and there is no specific numeracy proficiency requirement, but the Scheme highly recommends that applicants can demonstrate good numerate ability, have taken a numerate subject (accounting, finance, economics or a STEM subject), or have a degree with at least 30% numerate content. Two rules catch people out: you cannot join Finance if you are already qualified or part-qualified with CIMA, or already qualified with CIPFA or have completed its first stage, and no exam exemptions are given for earlier study. The salary is the same £31,276.

The Scheme does not publish an acceptance rate or an exact applicant count. What it does say is that it "receives tens of thousands of applications for a few hundred places", and that it is recruiting around 250 trainees for September 2027. It has also been ranked third in The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers.

Our illustration, not an official rate: "tens of thousands" suggests at least 20,000 applications, and 20,000 applications for 250 places is 80 applications per place, or places equal to about 1.25% of applications. That is a ratio of applications to places, not a measured offer rate. Places have grown in recent intakes:

Two official points are worth knowing. First, the Scheme says its process assesses your strengths and potential and is "not about what you've studied, the university you went to or the work experience you might have done"; there is no age limit, and four pathways take a 2:2 in any subject (subject to their own exclusions), while Engineering & Estates Management needs an accredited engineering degree. Second, you can try again: the Scheme says each year some trainees who start the Scheme had applied more than once, and it asks repeat applicants to reflect on their assessment feedback.

Read the stage guides for each step: our Future Potential Assessment guide, the Stage 2 video interview guide and the Virtual Assessment Centre guide.

These four questions play in our practice player. Press Start, answer them, and the result page explains every answer. They are our own independent practice questions, not NHS GMTS assessment items.

Placements are offered across seven regions of England: London, the South East, the South West, the East of England, the Midlands, the North West, and the North East and Yorkshire. You give your regional preferences when you apply, and you stay in one region for the whole Scheme, though your 2 or 3 placements may be at different organisations and sites within it. The Scheme weighs your assessment ranking, placement availability, your preferences and personal circumstances, and cannot guarantee a placement in any of the regions you ask for.

You can ask to work in a specific area within a region only on the grounds the Scheme lists: significant childcare responsibilities as a parent or legal guardian, primary caring responsibilities for a close relative, or a medical condition that makes working in a specified location mandatory. It will not consider pets, pastimes or commuting time, and defines a reasonable commute as "up to 90 mins to and from work". Once you have passed the assessment centre, the Scheme says it cannot change your preferred regions or the region you are allocated.

You must have the right to work in the UK for the whole Scheme, and the Scheme says it is your responsibility to hold the right visa. Trainees are in full-time employment; it is not a student programme, and an offer is withdrawn if you do not have the right to work. Offers are subject to pre-employment checks, including your immigration status, qualification verification and a recent proof of address in the UK.

On sponsorship, be careful with older advice. In April 2026 the entry page said the Scheme accepted applications from candidates needing a Skilled Worker visa, would pay for the certificate of sponsorship but not the visa fee or Immigration Health Surcharge, and warned that placements outside London do not get HCAS and so had not in the past met the Home Office minimum salary. That Skilled Worker section is no longer on the page, whose right-to-work section was updated in July 2026. If you would need sponsorship, contact the Scheme for current guidance before you apply rather than relying on either version.

Applications for 2027 entry were due to open at midday on 23 September 2026 and closed at 11.30am on 28 October 2026. No dates for 2028 entry were published on the pages we read on 1 November 2026; for the 2026 intake, the Scheme said applications would reopen in September 2025. For 2027 entry, final-year students could apply if they would have their confirmed degree classification (at least a 2:2) by mid-August 2027 and met their pathway's other entry rules.