With the excitement of Changeover Wednesday and new doctors arriving at their first jobs, freshly minted final years across the country are looking on and looking ahead to their own applications for Foundation jobs. In the third of our ‘Introductions,’ we take you through the basics of the application process, step by step.
Monday 19th August 2019
Academic Foundation posts are released onto Oriel, the online application forum. Note that whilst you can view the AFP jobs, you won’t be able to register until September.
For those hoping to apply for an AFP, it’s a good idea to take a look at the jobs early and make some decisions about which you’re keen to apply for, and do some preparation for the application process, which differs from the standard Foundation application.
Monday 23rd September 2019
Registration for Oriel opens, meaning you can set up your account and look through the application form. All available Foundation programmes will be on Oriel to view.
Make sure you set up your Oriel account and keep your account details in a safe place. Remember you must register with the email address your medical school nominated you with. Take a look at some of the programmes in your preferred area – do any jump out at you? Remember that you apply for an area first, and then rank jobs, but it is good to have an idea of what is important to you.
Monday 30th September – Friday 11th October 2019 at 12:00
Application period for the 2020-2022 Foundation programme. You’ll have to complete the national application form, which is made up of 11 sections:
1) Personal
Here you enter your personal details and contact details. You can also enter any disabilities or health problems that you may need your employer to be aware of to ensure appropriate support is in place.
2) Eligibility
In this section you will select your current GMC registration status – usually ‘not registered’ – and provide documentation supporting your right to work in the UK.
3) Fitness
This section records any previous convictions, investigations or previous fitness to practice issues.
4) References
You’ll be asked to provide the contact details of someone from your medical school who will be willing and able to give you a reference. This should be a supervisor who knows you well and is able to comment on your performance. Make sure you ask them before you put their details down!
5) Competences
Select your medical school and indicate that you are a final year medical student.
6) Employment
For previous employment. This will be left blank, as it is assumed you will not have worked as a doctor in the UK before.
7) Evidence
In this section you can submit any evidence you have of additional educational achievements, worth up to 7 points on your application. Points are allocated for extra degrees:
1 – Third class honours
2 – Lower second class honours
3 – Upper second class honours
4 – First class honours, Postgraduate Master’s, Batchelor of Dental Surgery
5 – PhD
You can also gain up to two points here for submitting evidence of articles published in journals, as long as they have a PubMed ID.
8) Supporting (AFP only)
This is space for the extra information, such as white space questions and extra educational achievements, required by any AFP posts you are applying for. If you’re not applying for an AFP, this can be left blank.
9) Preferences
Here, you’ll rank the 20 ‘application schools,’ commonly known as deaneries.
10) Equality
A section for equal opportunities monitoring information. You’re not obliged to declare anything here if you don’t want to, but the data is used only for monitoring purposes.
11) Declarations
Several declarations must be ticked off here, confirming that you have read and understood elements of the application.
You can do the application form in stages and save your progress, but once you have selected ‘submit’ you will only be able to amend your contact details.
Friday 11th October 2019
Deadline for submitting Special Circumstances requests to the UK Foundation Programme Office. Special circumstances include significant caring responsibilities or specific health problems. You can find more guidance here. Applicants should be informed if their request has been accepted by 4th November 2019, and there is then an appeals period.
From Monday 14th October 2019
Applicants who have applied for Academic posts and been selected for interview will be informed. Interviews are locally arranged by individual deaneries.
21st October 2019
Your total EPM score will be available to be viewed on Oriel.
Friday 6th December 2019
First SJT date.
Monday 6th January 2020
Second SJT date.
Wednesday 15th January – 12th February 2020
Applicants who have been successful in being selected for an AFP post are informed. There is then a process of offer cascades as people accept or reject their choices.
13th February 2020 12 noon
Deadline for changing your deanery rankings.
Thursday 12th March 2020
Deanery allocations are released, so you will know the general area in which you’ll be spending your Foundation years. You’ll also be able to see your SJT score and your overall ranking score on Oriel.
Monday 16th March – Thursday 16th April 2020
The medical school referees you have supplied will be contacted to collect their references.
13th March – 3rd April 2020
Applicants rank the programmes within their deanery. Each area will have a different local deadline for ranking, so check this carefully.
Thursday 9th April 2020
Applicants receive their programme allocations, so you should find out at which exact hospitals and rotations you will be spending your Foundation Years.
From April 2020
Reserve list offers will be released. Remember only a tiny number of students are placed on the reserve list every year.
Here at Medics.Academy we want to support you through every step of this journey. That’s why this year, we have decided to set up a group for students who are going into their final year in 2020. The group is open to any student in their final year of a UK medical school, meaning by joining you’ll get the chance to interact with students from across the country – some of whom may be your colleagues in August 2020! By joining, you’ll be able to access a discount on our Final Year Bundle. Normally, this learning material is worth a total of £70. As a member of the Final-Year 2019/20 Facebook Group, you can purchase it all for £7.
About the Author
Anna Harvey is a final year medical student and Medics.Academy Fellow. She is interested in women’s health, education and journalism. You can find her tweeting about writing, music and running at @a_c_harvey
