As we start the new year, we are proud to reflect on last year’s significant achievements in building a sustainable and skilled breast imaging workforce for the future.
Last year, we made progress across our four core workstreams – apprenticeships, fellowships, breast clinician training and online learning – while also expanding into wider workforce support and career development initiatives. Here, we share our key achievements and look ahead to the year ahead.
Mammography Apprenticeships – building capacity and creating opportunities for career development
We continued to grow the Mammography Associate apprenticeship programme in 2025, supporting new entrants into breast imaging services. By the end of the year, over 200 apprentices had successfully trained across England – a significant boost to the mammography screening and clinic workforce. It was a pleasure to welcome back our own qualified apprentices from cohorts 1 to 9 at our first Alumni Day.
We also launched the Level 5 Assistant Practitioner (health) apprenticeship specialising in mammography, creating a clear progression pathway for experienced associates and assistant practitioners. This enables career development, skill advancement, and flexibility within breast imaging teams.
Fellowships – developing clinical and academic expertise
We continued to deliver the Radiology Fellowship programme, attracting post-CCT radiologists from across the UK and overseas. Fellows benefit from structured clinical placements and tailored educational programmes that help develop the next generation of specialist breast radiologists.
We were also delighted to launch the NBIA Academic Fellowship, aimed at strengthening research capacity and academic leadership within breast imaging. Our first academic fellow, based at Gateshead Hospital, joined us at the start of this year.
Breast Clinicians – supporting multidisciplinary care
The Breast Clinician Credential remains a key part of our workforce strategy, providing a nationally recognised training route for clinicians across symptomatic and screening services. In 2025, our breast clinician trainees contributed increasingly to quality improvement, audit, and service development, demonstrating their value across multidisciplinary teams as demonstrated at our first Quality and Service Improvement Symposium.
NBIA Academy Online
Our NBIA Academy Online programme, delivered in partnership with e-Learning for Healthcare (e-LfH), expanded in 2025. These freely accessible resources support training and professional development across, and beyond, the breast imaging workforce and complement face-to-face teaching and clinical placements. We’ve been keen to emphasise this year that the sessions are not just for breast imaging trainees and staff but a wide range of health professionals.
Broadening training and support
During the year, we have extended our reach beyond our four core programmes. This included:
- A series of initiatives to raise awareness of, and encourage, careers in breast imaging, including:
- Development of the NBIA website as a central careers hub, showcasing training pathways, apprenticeships, fellowships, and other opportunities in breast imaging.
- Delivery of a T Level Study Day for Trafford College students, inspiring the next generation of breast imaging professionals.
- Expansion into the support of surgical training, with the launch of the oncoplastic techniques course
- Our first workshop for breast screening administrative and clerical staff
- Our first interesting cases symposium to share expertise, showcase unusual and complex cases, and highlight evolving techniques in breast imaging and intervention
- Our first quality improvement and audit symposium to share good practice, innovation, and developments
- A second mammography update study day. to support the ongoing professional development of mammographers, radiographers, assistant practitioners and mammography associates working within breast cancer services.
Our dedicated NBIA Training Academy
We are particularly proud and delighted that 2025 saw the completion of the build of our new dedicated training academy building at the Nightingale Centre in Manchester, made possible by the generosity of supporters of the Build to Beat Breast Cancer Appeal, jointly run by Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust Charity and Prevent Breast Cancer. When fully operational in 2026, it will increase national training capacity, provide modern learning environments, and support additional clinical activity, including seeing more patients locally.
Looking ahead to 2026
In 2026, our focus will be embedding these developments, expanding capacity, and further strengthening the breast imaging workforce across the UK.
Reflecting on a busy year, Dr Mary Wilson, Consultant Breast Radiologist and NBIA Programme Lead, said:
“2025 has been a year of real progress for the NBIA. We have delivered across all our workforce programmes – from apprenticeship pathways and fellowships to breast clinician training and online education – while also broadening our support across breast services. Looking ahead to 2026, with the new academy building ready for training and additional clinical activity, we are well placed to continue building a strong and sustainable breast imaging workforce for the future.”