Supporting Students Beyond Graduation: How METIS Strengthens the Transition Into Practice
- METIS Team
- Inside METIS
The move from student to newly qualified midwife is one of the most important transitions in a professional career. Across Europe, evidence consistently shows that the first year of practice strongly shapes confidence, wellbeing, and long‑term retention. METIS was created to respond to this moment—when support matters most.
Rather than focusing only on what happens inside education programmes, METIS looks at what comes next. It brings together midwifery educators, employers, professional associations, and technology partners to strengthen the bridge between learning and working life.
In practical terms, METIS supports continuity. Learning from placements does not stop at graduation; it travels with the midwife into the workplace. Feedback is treated as a resource for growth, not just an assessment record. New midwives are encouraged to reflect on their development while receiving structured, realistic support from mentors and teams.
This approach reflects a growing consensus across Europe: transition support is not an optional add‑on. It is central to safe care, professional confidence, and workforce sustainability. When education providers and employers work together, early‑career midwives are more likely to feel prepared, valued, and able to learn safely.
METIS contributes shared tools and practical approaches that make this collaboration easier. These are organised through clearly defined work packages (beyond project management WP1), each focused on a critical moment in the transition from education into practice.
WP2: Bridging Education and Employment (pre‑graduation) focuses on preparing final‑year midwifery students for entry into the workforce. Activities include structured job‑application training (CV writing, application letters, and interview preparation), scaffolding self‑directed learning and continuous professional development (CPD), mentor training to support career guidance, and digital readiness for effective use of ePortfolios. WP2 also pilots approaches to personal wellbeing awareness during the transition phase, helping students recognise and manage stress before entering full‑time practice.
WP3: Effective Onboarding and Mentorship for Career Transition (post‑graduation) builds directly on WP2 and supports newly qualified midwives during their first period of employment. Key activities include the development of a standardised onboarding procedure, continued use of ePortfolios to support CPD and self‑assessment, mentorship training for supervisors and workplace mentors, digital competency dashboards, and structured approaches to wellbeing monitoring in the workplace. Together, these activities aim to strengthen confidence, continuity of learning, and retention during early professional practice.
WP4: Implementation, Quality Assurance, and EU Policy Alignment ensures that interventions developed in WP2 and WP3 are implemented consistently, evaluated rigorously, and aligned with EU regulations and workforce priorities. This includes quality assurance processes, impact assessment, open‑access dissemination of tools and findings, and engagement with European professional associations and policymakers to support scalability beyond the project partners.
Together, these work packages align expectations across education and employment, helping create smoother transitions and stronger foundations for lifelong learning.
A strong start does not happen by chance. It is built through intentional design, cooperation across sectors, and trust in midwives as developing professionals.
