Dental news

RSS Feed

View by: Most Recent | Most Popular | Most Discussed

Dental foundation recruitment hailed a hit

Recommend on Facebook

Share on Twitter

Email this story

Email this story

Message (option)

Share this story

> Other stories

At the end of the first phase of nationally co-ordinated recruitment to Dental Foundation (Vocational) Training in England and Wales, 84% of candidates have already been offered places on training schemes commencing in 2012.
 
Plans for the process were agreed by a steering group comprising postgraduate deans, associate deans and members of London Deanery recruitment team, together with a BDA representative.

Recruitment was co-ordinated by the Committee of Postgraduate Dental Deans & Directors (COPDEND) in partnership with London Deanery, which has considerable expertise in medical recruitment and managed the process.
 
There were 1,190 applications made online and of these, 1,145 eligible candidates, including 97 from European dental schools were invited to one of five selection centres held across England.

In November 2011, 1,109 candidates attended these assessments and interviews, which were carried out by experienced foundation trainers and training programme directors who had undergone standardised training and calibration.
 
Each applicant was asked to state a preference order for each of the 74 training schemes and offers of a place were made on the basis of ranked scores achieved and stated preferences. Those who scored highest were offered a place on the scheme they most preferred.

All 927 places were allocated within a week of offers being made and of these 45% secured their first choice, 65% were offered a place on one of their top three schemes and 84% on one of their top 10 schemes.

Individual deaneries will be allocating these successful applicants to individual training practices over the next few months.
 
Further training places are expected to become available later in the year and 133 candidates on a reserve list will be notified about these after 2012 BDS final examinations are concluded.

Future offers of a place will be made on the same meritocratic basis as in this first round, using ranked scores and applicant preferences. Dental Foundation training places are funded by the NHS and the final number of funded places available for 2012/13 has not yet been confirmed.
 
A follow-up independent quality assurance of the entire process will be carried out by the UK Advisory Board for Dental Foundation Training, to ensure the process is both transparent and fair.

COPDEND and London Deanery are also undertaking a thorough evaluation, including statistical analysis of the data from the selection centres.

Initial results demonstrate minimal variation in average scores achieved on different days and in different locations for the selection centres and confirm there was no advantage in attending on a particular day. A detailed report will be published after the completion of the 2012 process.
 
Professor Chris Franklin, chair of COPDEND said: 'I am very pleased with how well this process has gone and would like to congratulate all those who have been offered a place in the first round.

'I do understand that the uncertainty may be unsettling for those who are still waiting to hear about a training place and would encourage those at dental school to concentrate now on preparing for final examinations. In previous years, most students didn't know where they would be training until much nearer the start of the programme.'

Rate this story

Once again Dentistry Magazine is content to just churn out the propoganda it is fed.

There are very real concerns out there over this process, and the number of graduates that are going to be left without placements, and therefore no way into NHS dentistry.

How do I stop this junk mail from falling through my door?

--This post was last edited on 22/1/12 at 12:18--

Posted by aj1dent 22/1/12 at 11:52

I was looking for the punchline after this title. Outside of COPDEND there has been universal dismay at national recruitment.

These statistics have been cleverly selected and worded to distract MPs and those with power from the sad fact that the process was a poorly executed mess. I only hope people can see past the political spin and take some action to help the victims of national recruitment who have had their careers seriously hampered before they have even begun.

Posted by talkingteeth 22/1/12 at 13:20

This is dismal reporting. There is nothing good about this news, it is a national scandal and those responsible should resign because promises were made but were not been kept.

Posted by tajak2012 22/1/12 at 18:51

Although retired, I havegrave reservations about the whole scheme. One has only to read the last paragraph where Prof Franklin blithely says,' I do understand that the uncertainty
may be unsettling for those still waiting to hear about a training place...' to see how it has failed. NO student in his/her final year should have that additional worry. It's a disgrace, especially when considering how easy it is for EU dentists (some from countries with doubtful dental standards, both teaching and practice) to work here.

Posted by toothgerm 22/1/12 at 22:42

does anyone possibly think that putting a newly qualified dentist into the current uda/nectar point/gaming nhs a positive career move? To learn what? How to cut corners,perfect dodgey sales patter,and suit treatment for the dentists benefit and not the patients. It started well (vt) but is now a source of cheap labour.

Posted by gordie 23/1/12 at 08:05

Please read Michael Watson's blog – http://www.dentistry.co.uk/news/4795-Give-us-a-job,-say-students4795-Give-us-a-job,-say-students – for an editorial on this very topic.

Posted by JB 26/1/12 at 09:10