APPLIED SCIENCE (LEARNING AT WORK) BSc (Hons) at University of Portsmouth

If you want to advance your scientific knowledge to degree level without leaving your job, this BSc (Hons) Applied Science Learning at Work degree is ideal. You'll strengthen your practical scientific skills so you can apply them in your career.

Because the course is work-based, you need to already be in a full-time, part-time or voluntary role. The way you learn is flexible, so you can study wherever is most convenient for you and schedule your studies around your existing commitments.

You can tailor the course to match your professional and personal aspirations and your employer's objectives. You can focus on a pure science such as physics, biology, chemistry or mathematics, or a more general area. You can also specialise in areas such as analysis, experiment design and scientific reporting.

You'll get to put the skills you learn to work instantly in your job, contributing to the success of your company while learning new skills, such as how to communicate scientific information to specialists and non-specialists with confidence and how to make sound professional judgements when faced with complex scientific problems.

When you complete the course, you'll improve your career prospects and have the skills and knowledge to perform more effectively in your job.

Course duration

This course isn't tied to the University's timetables or academic calendar. So you can work at your own pace, in your own time and in your own location. However, you must complete the course within 8 years.

You can complete the course more quickly if you have relevant work experience or qualifications that you can put towards your degree, such as a business-based Foundation degree, HNC, HND or relevant on-the-job training. This is known as Recognised Prior Learning (RPL). You can use RPL for up to 240 of the 360 credits you need to accumulate to get your degree.

We recommend you study modules worth 60 credits a year. Typically, a student who enters with the maximum RPL of 240 credits and has only 120 credits to study would take 18-24 months to complete the course.

Careers and opportunities

When you finish the course, you'll have the skills and knowledge to advance your career with your current employer and boost your long-term career prospects in areas such as environmental management, biotechnology, scientific research and health care management.

You can get help, advice and support for up to 5 years from our Careers and Employability service as you advance in your career.