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05th June 2023
Working as a nutritionist will see you applying your scientific knowledge, interest in health and food, and passion for helping others to deliver guidance and support to people around what they consume.
Your nutritionist career can develop in a number of different ways, and there are several nutritionist training routes that you could pursue – at postgraduate level or otherwise – to achieve your goals.
In this guide you’ll find all the information you need to discover how to become a nutritionist. That includes the different types of nutritionist qualifications you can get, what jobs you could go on to, the entry requirements for nutritionist courses, and more.
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Working as a nutritionist is a popular choice for individuals who are passionate about encouraging healthy living, making a positive impact on people’s lives, or getting involved in applied research around human health and diet.
Your nutritionist career could see you working across a wide range of professional environments, including hospitals, clinics and other healthcare facilities. Working in gyms and wellness centres is also possible, while there is also a strong academic and research branch to the field which will take you to universities and clinics. Policy and food manufacturing also utilise nutritionists, so you could work in government departments, public health organisations and in large commercial operations too.
Advancing your career could see you specialising in a certain area, or adding policymaking, research, clinical study or sports science to your skillset – making for a flexible and exciting long-term career path.
Nutritionist salary is obviously an important consideration – entry level professionals in this field could expect to earn up to £25,000, while experienced nutritionist could earn up to £55,000. For highly specialised, executive and senior roles, you could be looking at a wage of up to £80,000.
The requirements to work as a nutritionist are relatively broad compared to some other life and medical science professions. However, most employers in this field will only employ graduates who have achieved registration with the Association for Nutrition (AfN). Registration with this nutritionist association is effectively a nutritionist license. To obtain it, you’ll need to have an accredited degree in nutrition science.
This could be an undergraduate level degree for those who have not yet studied at university, but graduates of other subject backgrounds can study an accredited postgraduate course to get onto the AfN register.
There is a variety of specialist areas you could focus on during your nutritionist education, including human nutrition, exercise and nutrition, nutrition and global health, public health nutrition, and food science.
You can also get nutritionist certification without completing an accredited degree if you submit a portfolio of evidence which demonstrates sufficient expertise and knowledge of nutrition. Note, however, that this is only possible up to the end of 2025.
It’s also possible to get onto the Sport and Exercise Nutrition Register (SENr), which is managed by the British Dietetic Association, on completion of an accredited postgraduate degree.
These nutritionist certifications are key parts of progressing your career, but building professional networks and connections, developing essential skills for nutritionists, and choosing the right nutritionist programme for your interests are also essential considerations throughout your studies.
The entry requirements for your postgraduate study programme will be different depending on the university you’re applying to, as each one will have their own admissions policy. A student applying to a taught master’s degree will also be subject to different nutritionist requirements compared to a research master’s or PhD applicant.
Some courses will have a specific focus, and so will ask that applicants have experience in certain areas – such as qualitative research, for example.
In general, applicants for master’s programmes in nutrition will need at least a 2:2 qualification at undergraduate honours level, in a relevant subject such as nutrition or dietetics, sport science, nursing or life sciences. PhD courses, as well as some master’s qualifications, will ask for a minimum 2:1 at undergraduate level.
Our course search tool contains specific entry requirement information for each postgraduate nutrition course.
Postgraduate study is an ideal way to prepare for successful applications to nutritionist jobs by cultivating the essential skills needed to succeed.
Employers want to see evidence of hard and soft skills such as:
Scientific knowledge
Having a deep understanding of nutritional science, including key theories and processes in human biology and physiology, are the foundation of your ability as a nutritionist. You’ll need to have a thorough understanding of how the human body utilises and responds to different foods, and how management of this can support good health.
Research, analysis and reporting
Nutrition is a scientific field, and many roles involve research and the solving of problems – this may be on an individual patient level, researching and understanding a particular group of food items, or at a population level in clinical research settings.
Organisational and management skills
In many cases you’ll be working with other medical professionals, research staff, administrative infrastructure and clients, customers or patients. You’ll need to be able to balance different work items, manage your time effectively, and respond to new deadlines or challenges.
Communication and teamworking
Communicating with patients and ensuring that they are committed to recommended dietary changes, relaying the findings of your research, or collaborating with other team members will support successful outcomes in your work.
There are a huge range of nutritionist courses to choose from at postgraduate level. More than 45 universities in the UK offer postgraduate programmes in this field, with more than 100 study options to explore in total.
Our online course search tool is a great way to browse, shortlist and select from nutritionist courses. Whether you’re looking for a combined nutrition master’s course with exercise science, or a doctorate in clinical nutrition research, we make it easy to prepare for your perfect postgraduate studies.
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