This page includes guidance on completing the 'experience' section of the ST3 application form.
This part of the form requires you to add all of the medical posts you have been employed in since leaving medical school.
The aim of this section is to gain an idea of each candidate's particular level of training and experience, rather than to reward/penalise candidates for having had too much/not enough time in employment, post-medical school.
Adding posts
Where you are required to add posts, you will need to add a number of details.
In the main, these are relatively self-explanatory - however, for guidance on any of the fields required here, please click on the link below and any relevant headings revealed:
‹ click here for more information ›
Click on the relevant heading below to reveal more information about each field:
‹ Employer details (name, NHS status, address) ›
In general, the information is about who was 'directly' employing you - as in, details of where you were working, rather than who was technically employing you.
For example, if you are working in a UK hospital, you should give the details of the hospital, rather than of the trust/deanery/etc.
You do not need to enter the full address for your previous posts; address fields are only mandatory for your current and any future post planned..
The 'employer' field is simply a matter of selecting 'NHS', 'non-NHS' or 'unknown'.
‹ Post details (title, type, etc.) ›
- Post title - give the most accurate title, eg trainee, registrar, consultant, etc.
- Grade - see below.
- Post type - of the options available, select which you feel is the most appropriate for the post in question. The available 'types' are based on UK post types, so if your post was overseas, either select the option you feel is closest, or choose 'n/a' or 'other'.
- Specialty - select the relevant specialty from the drop-down list; if you cannot find an exact match, please choose the closest option available.
- Less than full time - choose whether the post was full-time or otherwise. If you select 'yes' (it was LTFT), you will be asked to give an estimate of the full tiem equivalence - eg 0.8.
- Start & end dates - give the date (day, month, year) on which the post started and ended. If you do not have exact dates available, give estimates - eg 1 January 2010-1 April 2010
‹ Post grade ›
This field has been added to the application form so as to allow comparison of posts between candidates who have undertaken different training schemes and have different career histories.
Even within the UK over the last 10 years, training programmes have changed to a large degree, making comparison difficult.
Some examples of how to grade different posts are as below:
Foundation Year 1 (FY1) post = n/a
Foundation Year 2 (FY2) post = n/a
CT1/FTSTA1/LAS/LAT/trust posts undertaken during first year after completing foundation (or equivalent) = 1
CT2/FTSTA2/LAS/LAT/trust posts undertaken during second year after completing foundation (or equivalent) = 2
(and so on)
If you did not undertake an FY2 post, but instead did a first-year SHO post after a house office/FY1 post (or equivalent), this first-year SHO post could be equated to an FY2 post; so a subsequent SHO post in the following year would equate to the current CT1-level.
Do not worry too much about this area of the form!
As noted, this field is prinicipally to allow recruiters/interviewers to gain as clear a picture as possible of your level of training to date.
But as long as you enter all of your posts clearly in chronological order, you will not be penalised for making an error when entering your grade.
‹ Employment references ›
The 'employment reference' fields of the form are included essentially to allow deaneries/UoAs to contact previous employers for any information relating to your previous posts.
Please give appropriate details of whomever you feel has best access to information regarding your time there; in many cases this will be medical staffing or personnel, rather than a named individual.
If you do not have details available, please note that completion of these fields is not mandatory, and should a deanery need to contact past employers for any information, this can be organised at a later date.
‹ Saving/adding/deleting post details ›
Below the fields for each post will be two buttons - 'add...post' and 'delete...post'. You do not need to click 'add post' upon adding details to the fields; these will be retained by the form when you save the section.
You should only click 'add post' when you need to give details of an extra post.
'Delete post' will see the details of the most recently-added post removed.
‹ Add all individual rotations ›
Where you have undertaken rotations or short-term posts as part of longer programmes, each of these rotations/posts should be added individually.
So for instance, if a candidate had undertaken four six-month programmes as part of the foundation training programme, each of these four should be added separately.
‹ Medical posts only ›
The employment/training information required in this section should all be medical employment/training.
If you have undertaken other employment, you can give details on this in the 'career gaps' section (see further down this page).
The experience page is divided into five areas. Click the link below to reveal summary information on each:
Click on the relevant heading below to reveal more information:
Current employment status & future posts
The first part of the experience page seeks to ascertain your current training status, and any employment you have scheduled for the coming weeks/months.
‹ click here for more information ›
Current employment status
By current, this refers to 'at time of application'; ie at the time of completing your form.
The question also emphasises '...employed in a medical post'; if your current employment is a clinical attachment, or ad-hoc locum work, then please select 'no' and continue as before.
Future post
If you are due to begin a post in future (ie after your application is submitted), select 'yes'.
This will bring up a series of fields where information on your next post can be added.
In the event that you have more than one post scheduled, you should give details of this too - click 'add planned post' to bring up a series of new fields, and give details as need be.
Current or most recent post & previous posts
Next, you will be asked to give details of your employment history up to this point.
‹ click here for more information ›
If you are currently employed in a medical post, give details in the current/most recent section; if not, give details of your last post.
Once done, the next section down the page is where details of all your previous posts can be added; click 'add previous post' each time you wish to give details of an older post.
Remember that the address fields for previous posts are not mandatory, which will save you time when completing the form.
Career gaps
If there are any instances where there is a gap in your career history of more than 28 days, within three years of the post start date (since August 2010), it will be necessary to add explanations of this in the 'Career Gaps' section.
‹ click here for more information ›
This includes any gap of employment between completing medical school and your first medical post.
Please be aware that recruiters/interviewers are not looking to penalise you for any time outside of medical training/employment here; but to gain a comprehensive idea of your level of skills and experience.
If you have any gaps in your employment history, select 'yes' from the relevant drop-down list, give dates of the gap, and then select the reason from the subsequent list (expanding if necessary).
Career progression
This section covers two areas seeking declarations on whether or not you meet requirements set out in the relevant person specification.
‹ click here for more information ›
Medical specialty experience
First of all, you are asked to declare that you meet the minimum experience requirement - ie that you will have gained at least 24 months' experience in qualifying specialties by the time of post start date (August 2013).
It is very important that you have read the experience section (eligiblity) of the website to ensure you declare honestly here.
Should you answer 'no' here (ie stating you will not have completed sufficient experience), you will be advised that without this experience, you not be eligible to apply to ST3.
However, a free-text box will appear allowing you to make recruiters aware of any exceptional circumstances they should take into account.
No previous departure from a specialty training programme
To be eligible for an ST3 post, you must not have previously relinquished, been released or removed from a post in a training programme within the specialty to which you are applying; except under exceptional circumstances.
Should you answer 'yes' here (to having previously relinquished etc. a post), it will be noted that you must provide further details on this relinquishing to your first-choice deanery/UoA once you have submitted your applicaiton.
The am I eligible section of the site contains more information about this.
Declaration
Once both career progression fields have been completed, you will be asked to sign (ie tick-off) a declaration informing you that you may be later required to provide further information, and confirming your understanding that if the information here is deemed insufficient or untrue, your application will progress no further.
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