Applying

You will use Oriel, a UK-wide portal and recruitment system for postgraduate training vacancies, to submit your application.

Oriel enables applicants to register for training, view vacancies, apply, book interviews and assessment centres and manage offers, all within a single, central location.

The benefits this system offers you includes, but are not limited to the below.

• A single registration process where you only need one log in for the entire recruitment year and only need to enter certain parts of the application form once.
• A site that lists all vacancies and enables you to apply to any specialty in one place.
• The ability to book and manage interviews and assessment centres within one location.
• You have your own profile and status updates for each specialty you have applied to. This means that you can see when you have been longlisted, shortlisted, invited to interview or offered a post.

Creating an account

You can register for an account at any time, however you can only complete an application form once the recruitment window is open. 

If accessing the Oriel system for the first time, you will need to create and set up a new account. This should not take more than 5 minutes. From the main screen first select your staff group, and then Register in the top right hand corner. 

It is important to make sure that you receive a confirmation email after registering as email will be the main method by which you are contacted through the recruitment round. Emails are normally received within 15 minutes and should not be more than an hour.

If you register your account, but have not received an email to either your inbox or spam/junk mail folders within 60 minutes of registering, please contact the the relevant recruitment office.

You should ensure that you only have a single Oriel account that you use for all of your applications. Where issues are experienced with scores not being transferred between multiple accounts, the recruitment office will not be able to assist with these and your applications may be adversely impacted.

Visit the Oriel Resource Bank for further applicant user guidance.

The application form

All applications are in an electronic format and are to be completed online through Oriel. 

Contact regarding applications will be via direct messaging through Oriel. You are therefore advised to log into your Oriel account regularly throughout the recruitment process.

Most recruitment offices will also send you an email to a stated email address, however, these emails should not be relied upon and delivery cannot be guaranteed as they are being sent external to Oriel.

You will have the ability to set a recovery email address (which is different to your registered Oriel email address) and security questions. This can be done in the My Profile area of your Oriel account. You are strongly advised to set this up as it will allow you to unlock your account outside of normal office hours, without needing to make contact with the recruitment office.

The first step to applying is to locate the appropriate vacancy in the Vacancies area of Oriel.

You will need to check the specific details of how your specialty recruits as many specialties are recruiting by means of a national process. In these specialties, you will be able to make a single application where you are asked to state your order of preference between different geographical locations.

It is important to select the correct vacancy as it is not possible to transfer an application. 

You can make as many applications as you wish to different specialties, providing you meet all the eligibility criteria and required competences of the post(s) as detailed in the person specification.

You are advised to consider the high level of competition for some specialties and geographies when making your application. Competition ratios for specialties in previous recruitment years are available for you to check before submitting.

 

Application deadline

Applications must be received by the date stated on the recruitment timeline.

Under no circumstances will late applications be considered.

Recruitment offices will not be able to make any changes to submitted application forms on Oriel. You must therefore ensure that you check the content of your application form prior to submission as there will be no opportunity to correct mistakes at a later date.

Application checklist

Before starting an application, you should ensure go through the checklist below.

Avoiding problems

There are a number of steps you can take to avoid experiencing problems in the recruitment process.

• Log into Oriel regularly to check progress on applications and to see if any communication has been received from the recruitment office. This is particularly important at the time that offers are released when you are advised to check your Oriel account on a daily basis. Setting up a recovery email address and security questions allows for accounts to be unlocked and accessed outside of office hours, without needing to contact the recruitment office. Whilst many recruitment offices will also send communications via email, delivery of emails cannot be guaranteed as they are being sent external to Oriel and should therefore not be relied upon.
• Inform the recruitment office(s) of any periods that may cause you to be uncontactable e.g. being on holiday or on call. Most recruitment offices will consider this, but they should be contacted in advance to discuss whether alternative arrangements can be made. No guarantees of accommodating alternative arrangements can be offered. You will still be expected to personally check your account regularly during the offers period.
• Plan to submit the application form well in advance of the application deadline. Typically, during each recruitment round, approximately 60% of applications are submitted in the last 48 hours of the application window. Due to the volume of applicants completing and submitting applications in the final hours, you may experience the Oriel system running slowly. Late applications will not be accepted under any circumstances.

Disability Confident Scheme (DCS)

You will be asked to declare on your application form if you have a disability as set out in the Equality Act 2010 and whether you wish to be considered under the Disability Confident Scheme. This information will not be available to shortlisting panels.

If you wish to be considered under the scheme, you will be asked to upload supporting evidence confirming that you have a disability to your application. Examples of evidence that can be provided include:

• Letter from your GP or the medical specialist treating your condition
• Letter or report written by an Occupational Health physician
• Educational psychologist report

The signatory of the evidence must have a relevant professional relationship with you.

Where interview capacity allows, all applicants applying under the DCS who meet the minimum criteria will be invited to interview.  Where the number of eligible DCS applicants exceeds the number of interview slots available, applicants who meet all the minimum criteria and best meet the desirable criteria will be invited to interview.

Specialties may set a minimum shortlisting score which must be achieved by applicants to demonstrate the minimum criteria, if this is the case this information will be provided in the applicant guidance for the specialty.

Reasonable Adjustments

Recruiters will ensure, where possible, that reasonable adjustments are made for assessments and interviews to meet the needs of applicants with disabilities. You must ensure that you detail any adjustments required on your application form and communicate with the recruiting organisation as soon as an invitation to interview has been received.  Failure to provide the requested information and documentation to the recruiting organisation by the stated deadline, will result in adjustments not being met.

You should expect to provide medical evidence for any adjustments requested and are therefore advised to source this as soon as possible to ensure that deadlines are met.  If your medical evidence is more than 6 months old and you are not applying for reasonable adjustments on the basis of a long-term condition, you may be asked to provide further information.

If you require reasonable adjustments to take up a training post, or feel that you are unable to complete all of the requirements of the specialty curriculum, you should make contact with the relevant Royal College or Faculty to discuss this. Recruitment teams will be unable to advise on this.

Eligibility check

Submitted application forms will need to pass an eligibility check before they can be considered for shortlisting and/or interview. Recruitment teams will ensure that application forms meet the following eligibility criteria in addition to any other specialty specific criteria.

• Immigration status and right to work in the UK.
• General Medical Council (GMC) and General Dental Council (GDC) registration, if required.
• Any examination/competency/experience requirements in line with the post.

When completing the employment history section of the application form all previous clinical experience should be declared. This includes experience inside and outside of the UK, in both training and service posts. You should also ensure that you detail any time spent out of work to ensure that there are no unexplained career gaps.

By allowing you to progress to the shortlisting and/or interview stage, recruitment offices have not accepted or confirmed that you meet eligibility requirements. You may still be withdrawn from the recruitment process at any stage, including after interviews have taken place if the evidence pertaining to an eligibility criterion is found to be unsatisfactory by the recruitment office.

Submission

There are 3 ways by which you can confirm that your application has been submitted.

1. You will receive an automatic email confirming submission. The email may not arrive immediately upon submission of your application. In busy times, particularly near the application closing date, there can be a significant delay in when this email is received.
2. Check your messages in your Oriel account. Any emails sent to you via the application system will be stored in your candidate portal on Oriel in the Messages section, so you will be able to view these upon logging in.
3. Check that your application status has been updated from In progress to Applied. This can be seen in the Applications area of your Oriel dashboard.

If you are applying in Round 2 but have accepted a post in Round 1

You can apply for vacancies advertised in later recruitment rounds (e.g. Round 2), even if you have already accepted a post in the first round of recruitment.

If you have already received and accepted an offer of employment, you must make it known to the recruitment office to which you are applying that you have already secured a post in a previous round. You will also need to notify the recruitment office where you had previously accepted a post. This should be done by email at the time of application and at interview. This will not prejudice the application. This is purely for the benefit of the organisations that are providing patient care, so that they can manage services and maintain standards.

You will also be required to give notice before you can take up the new post. Even if you have not received your written contract, you should still discuss the notice required with the employing organisation.

If you are applying for specialty training having previously relinquished or been removed from a training programme in any specialty

If you are applying to specialty training having previously been removed or relinquished/resigned from any other specialty training programme, you must declare this on your application form.

A Support for Reapplication to Specialty Training form must be completed, approved by the previous Training Programme Director/Head of School and previous Postgraduate Dean and attached to your application. Failure to provide this documentation will result in the application being rejected. No other evidence will be accepted in support of reapplication.

A new form must be completed, with appropriate support, each recruitment year. Forms completed in previous recruitment years will not be accepted.

If you are applying to continue specialty training in the same specialty in another region

If you are already in a specialty training programme and are applying again to the same specialty, in another area/region you must declare this on your application form.

A Support for Reapplication of Specialty Training in a Different Region form must be completed, approved by the current Training Programme Director/Head of School and attached to your application. Failure to provide this information will result in the application being rejected. No other evidence will be accepted in support of reapplication.

If you are considering applying for the same specialty training programme in another region, you should communicate this to your existing Training Programme Director/Head of School at the earliest opportunity. Specialty training vacancies available for recruitment are confirmed well in advance of interviews/selection centres taking place. Early conversations with existing training programmes could allow for provisional plans to be put in place to replace the postholder should the application be successful.