• Question: What qualifications do you need in order to become an oncologist?

    Asked by Katie to Jen on 8 Mar 2016.
    • Photo: Jen Lowe

      Jen Lowe answered on 8 Mar 2016:

      I think all doctors have to study the same basic ‘medicine’ degree and then specialise later in their training. You would need to check with each university but I know it’s very competitive and I suspect you need at least 3 As at A level in mostly science subjects.
      If you think this would be a challenge for you then I believe there are entry level healthcare pre-degree courses that can help you prepare before being accepted onto a medicine degree course.
      Time for a visit to your careers service?

Comments

  • Photo: Greg

    Greg commented on :

    If you want to be any sort of doctor, the career progression looks like this:

    1) A levels (including Chemistry and probably Biology too)
    2) Med school: it takes 5 years at medical school to get your medical degree.
    3) Foundation: You spend 2 years being a foundation doctor, where you get rotated round several different departments to learn about the different types of doctors you could be.
    3) Speciality training: You finally get to specialise into what sort of doctor you want to be, such as a GP, an oncologist or a surgeon. Most specialities require five further years of training, including ‘core’ and ‘advanced’ training – although you’d hope everyone would be pretty advanced by this stage!
    4) You can now finally apply for consultant jobs.

    You might like to talk to your careers service, or else look up the British Medical Association (the BMA) which can tell you more about being a doctor.