Career Pathways Initiative
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Career family

Health & Medical Care

Keeping people well, diagnosing illness and caring for patients, in hospitals, clinics, pharmacies, labs and communities.

  • Mainly Helping & Teaching
  • Also Investigating & Solving
  • Also Making & Fixing

What the work involves

A closer look.

Most roles combine scientific knowledge with close work with people, often under time pressure. Many involve shifts, regulated practice and continuous learning. Not every health role is clinical: public health, health records, health administration and medical sales are part of the field too.

Typical roles

  • Medical doctor
  • Nurse or midwife
  • Pharmacist
  • Medical laboratory scientist
  • Physiotherapist
  • Radiographer
  • Community health worker
  • Public health officer
  • Health records officer

Entry routes in Nigeria

  • Science subjects at SSCE (usually Biology, Chemistry, Physics or Maths, and English)
  • UTME and a degree in an accredited programme (medicine, nursing, pharmacy, medical laboratory science and others)
  • Diplomas and certificates from schools of nursing, midwifery and health technology
  • Registration with the relevant regulator, for example the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria, the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria or the Pharmacists Council of Nigeria
  • Internship or housemanship, then NYSC, for many clinical roles

Requirements change. Always verify with the official body, JAMB or the institution.

Skills that matter

  • Science and accurate calculation
  • Calm communication with worried people
  • Attention to detail and record-keeping
  • Stamina and steady hands for practical work
  • Working in a team under pressure

By life stage

Where you could start.

Secondary school

Often-linked SSCE stream: Science. Check with your school.

Undergraduate

Medicine and surgery, nursing, pharmacy, medical laboratory science, physiotherapy, public health. Internships: hospital attachments, pharmacy placements, health NGOs.

Fresh graduate

Internship and housemanship posts, pharmacy and lab assistant roles, health programme officers, medical sales representatives.

Young professional

People move in from biology, chemistry, data and administration into public health, health management, health tech and research roles.

Vocational routes, entrepreneurship, public service and further study are all valid paths. We don’t show salaries or employment rates without a dated, verified source.

Ask a practitioner

Questions to ask.

Use these in a 15–20 minute conversation with someone who works in this family.

  1. What does a normal week look like for you?
  2. What do you enjoy most about the work, and what is hardest?
  3. How did you get into this field? Were there other routes you could have taken?
  4. Which subjects, courses or qualifications really matter, and which matter less than people think?
  5. What skills do you use every day that school didn’t teach you?
  6. What do people misunderstand about your job?
  7. If you were starting today, what would you do first?
  8. Who else should I talk to?

Test it

Ways to check if it suits you

  • Informational conversation

    Talk to one person who does the work, using the questions on this page.

  • Job description review

    Read three real adverts for roles in this family and list the requirements that keep coming up.

  • Small project

    Try a small piece of the work yourself, then reflect on whether you enjoyed it.

  • Short course

    Take a free or low-cost introductory course to test your interest before committing.

  • Job shadow or workplace visit

    Spend a few hours watching the work happen. CPI arranges visits for participants.

  • Mentor conversation

    Discuss what you have found with a mentor or coach.

  • Official qualification research

    Check requirements with the professional body, JAMB, the institution or the employer directly.

Related

You might also explore.

Engineering & Built Environment

Designing, building and maintaining the structures, machines and systems people rely on: roads, power, buildings, factories and water.

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Technology, Software & Data

Building software and digital products, keeping systems secure and running, and turning data into decisions.

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Science & Research

Asking questions about the natural world and testing answers carefully, in labs, the field, universities, industry and government.

Explore

Want to know if this fits you?

Take the self-assessment, then use your roadmap to test this direction.

Take the Self-Assessment Join the Initiative