Exploring Specialties

In order to make well-informed and realistic career decisions you need to know what work in each specialty involves, what the entry, training and assessment requirements are and the kind of personal attributes needed.

If you want to find out which specialties match your work interests, try the Sci59 medical careers interest inventory – for details see "What Do I Want"?

The UK Medical Careers website gives a comprehensive overview of specialties and subspecialties, including workforce planning information indicating future opportunity.

Many Royal Colleges have information and downloads about career and training on their websites: see the Related Resources area on this page.

Specialty information can also be found on UK Modernising Medical Careers website , where you can download person specifications

West Midlands Deanery have also hosted over 60 Careers Podcasts giving a short insight into many subspecialties.

Specialty Training in Wales

The Specialty Training Wales site contains information about current recruitment rounds and about our Specialty Training programmes in Wales.

Click on individual specialties below for links to individual training programmes, vacancy information and key contacts:

• Anaesthesia
• Acute Care Common Stem
• General Practice
• Emergency Medicine
• Medicine
• Obstetrics and Gynaecology
• Paediatrics
• Pathology
• Psychiatry
• Public Health
• Radiology
• Surgery

View the online Specialty Video Clips for more detailed information on specialty training in Wales, featuring interviews with consultants and trainees in our training programmes.

Foundation Trainees can organise specialty taster sessions during the second year of the Foundation Programme. In the first instance, you should contact your Educational Supervisor or Foundation Training Programme Director for more details.