The National Education and Training Survey (NETS)

About the NETS 

The National Education and Training Survey (NETS) provides us with a unique, multi-professional insight into the experience of the current and future healthcare workforce working and learning in services across the country. The NETS has been running annually since 2019 and remains the only national survey of healthcare trainees’ and students’ experiences of their education and training environments, gathering the views of c.40,000 respondents in 2023. It has evolved with each iteration. In response to stakeholder feedback, we have made a number of improvements to the survey for 2023, including the introduction of sexual safety questions aligned to measure the impact of the recently launched Sexual Safety Charter. In addition, we have updated options for protected characteristics, which help us to explore and improve quality through the lens of equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) contributing to our annual Deans’ EDI Report.

The NETS continues to provide invaluable insight into the quality of education and training and whether the standards set out in our Education Quality Framework are met. In doing so, it helps us to meet our statutory responsibility for the continuous improvement of healthcare education and training, which is essential for creating a highly skilled and motivated workforce, improving retention and recruitment, and supporting the delivery of the Long-Term Workforce Plan.

This years’ NETS results identify a number of improvements in education and training quality across several key indicators, reflecting the work of our teams, the dedication of our healthcare educator workforce, and the commitment of our education and placement provider organisations to deliver excellent healthcare education and training. However, this year’s NETS also describes a challenging situation for our learners with increased levels of stress, burnout and feeling overwhelmed. Furthermore, and for the second year in a row, a third of learners have considered leaving their training programme, with learners citing stress, workload and being overwhelmed. Further work is required to improve the learner experience.

As a key tool to measure and understand the landscape of healthcare education and training, NETS remains a fundamental element of our approach to education quality. By providing the intelligence crucial to support to our quality management processes, it helps us to ensure an embedded culture of education and training that is fair, promotes equality, and values and facilitates learning opportunities for all.