Recruitment to Specialty Training

Decisions, decisions

During the later stages of Foundation Training, a specific series of choices needs to be made, including:

• What to do after Foundation?
• Whether to apply for Specialty Training straight away? Or work abroad for a while? Or gain more experience then apply at a later stage?
• Which specialty to apply for? Or how many?
• Where do I hope to be based for an extensive period of training? Is location more important to me than specialty or vice versa?
• On receiving offers, whether to accept or hold?
• If no training place offered, what to do next?

It is important to do some scenario planning around these types of question at the earliest opportunity, not when you are facing a critical choice about a job offer with a tight deadline.

Using Competition Ratios

After Foundation Training, many doctors pursue opportunities for Specialty Training and information on the previous years competition ratios is a popular source of information, available on the national MMC or individual Deanery websites. However, use with caution. They can help to give an idea over time of most/least popular specialties but:

• Posts are based on NHS service need; this changes from year to year
• Ratios usually reflect number of applicants to number of posts, but not all of these applicants are shortlisted and not all present for interview. The true ratio may be much smaller.
• Where few training posts are created one year, many can be created next year and vice versa
• Using past data to determine future choice is like driving whilst looking in the rear view mirror!

The BMA also have FAQs from current and previous recruitment rounds to help you understand implications of choices when making applications and accepting offers of Specialty Training.