Routes to qualified status: practices and trends among UK professional bodies

In the UK fully qualified status in professional occupations is normally awarded by a professional association or registration body. Both the requirements and the routes for qualifying vary between professions, although the majority include an academic component combined with or followed by a period of assessed practice. In recent years there have been pressures on professions to broaden their entry routes while at the same time becoming more rigorous in the way that they sign off practitioners as fit to practise. A small‐scale study undertaken in 2007 investigated how different professions operate entry routes and qualifying processes. The findings indicate a trend towards increased flexibility, more thorough assessment of the practising phase, and some movement away from defined routes towards frameworks with robust exit criteria. The pace of change is nevertheless uneven, and there is scope for professions to learn from one another and from recent developments in higher education.