Core Surgical Training CT1 Specialty Training Advert 2024-2025

The information and documents included on this page are to help you prepare for your future specialty training applications.

Please be aware specialty training advertisements, links, recruitment leads, post numbers, etc. can change and there is no guarantee that future advertisements and application processes will remain the same. 

Job Advert

The text below is from the specialty training advertisement included on the Oriel website and is included here for information to help you prepare for future applications.

Please be aware specialty training advertisements, links, recruitment leads, post numbers, etc. can change and there is no guarantee that future advertisements and application processes will remain the same. 

Training Programme:Core Surgical Training
Post Type:Core Training (CT)
Post Commencing From: August 2025
Duration (months):24
Recruitment Lead:London
Recruiting For:England, Scotland, Wales
Enquiries:http://lasepgmdesupport.hee.nhs.uk/support/home
Information:

Core Surgical Training CT1/ST1 

London recruitment office nationally co-ordinate the recruitment into Core Surgery Training at CT1/ST1 level for round 1 in 2025 on behalf of England, Wales and Scotland. 

Core surgical training (CST) provides the setting for the first two post Foundation years in the development of surgeons from all specialties except neurosurgery. Over the course of two years, successful applicants will, through supervised practice in the clinic, theatres and wards of approved training sites across the UK, work towards success in the MRCS examination and ST3 selection in their chosen surgical specialty.  They will be asked to choose between generic rotations, suitable for those keen to explore a career in surgery, but not yet committed to a single surgical specialty and themed programmes, orientated from the outset towards a specified branch of surgery.  

IST

NHS England have agreed to pause the recruitment to ALL IST posts in England for 2025. The number of surgical training places will be maintained as posts will be added back into core surgical recruitment.

Wales and Scotland will continue to recruit to run through IST.

 Summary of change for recruitment process 2025

Please ensure you check the guidance carefully to confirm the appropriate method to demonstrate your foundation competence. 

If you are required to submit a Certificate of Readiness to Enter Specialty Training 2024 (CREST) form with your application and do not do so then you will not be offered another opportunity to upload it and your application will not proceed to the next stage of the process.

You can only submit the CREST 2024 for this recruitment round. You can find it here.

 Eligibility Criteria for recruitment to Specialty Training 

All applicants applying to specialty training are required to have essential competences or equivalent depending on the level they are applying for. For more information on competences please refer to the resource bank on Oriel via www.oriel.nhs.uk/Web/ResourceBank and the national CT1/ST1 person specification can be downloaded via the National Specialty Training Website: https://specialtytraining.hee.nhs.uk/Recruitment/Person-specifications  

Please upload all required evidence of competences to your application form when completing it online. For those experiencing difficulties when uploading evidence, please ensure you contact the team via the PGMDE support portal: https://lasepgmdesupport.hee.nhs.uk/support/home 

 Fitness to Practice

If you have made a positive declaration in the FTP section, you must follow this up by completing our form on the support portal, you must contact London recruitment office via support portal by the close of the application window. Failure to provide the outlined information by the close of application may result in your application being withdrawn.

Please note that there is a strict application policy that applications cannot be accepted after the deadline 

The training programme is equally open to those who may, either from the outset or subsequently, wish to train flexibly or job share. 

 Reasonable adjustments and Disability Confident Scheme:  

For information regarding reasonable adjustments and Disability Confident Scheme please refer to  the Medical Specialty Recruitment website

 

Eligibility Criteria for recruitment to Specialty Training – Immigration Requirements

All medical practitioners are on the shortage occupation list, this means with the exception of all applicants to Public Health, all specialty recruitment applicants will be exempt from the resident labour market test (RLMT). 

 Key dates & information: 

A full timeline can be found on the Medical Specialty Training website available here: https://medical.hee.nhs.uk/medical-training-recruitment/medical-specialty-training/surgery/core-surgery 

Interview dates:  Monday 24 February to Thursday 7 March 2025

Interview venue:  Remote Interviews  

Posts commence from: 6 August 2025

The Medical Specialty Training website contains detailed information about how to complete your application form, the shortlisting process, interview process and preferences. We therefore recommend that all applicants read the website thoroughly before starting to complete an application form.  

 Shortlisting process  

As part of the selection process for 2025 recruitment all longlisted applicants will be required to take a Multi-Specialty Recruitment Assessment (MSRA). This will form the basis of your shortlisting score. Further information on the shortlisting stages and the MSRA can be found on the Medical Specialty Training website

Interview process

Document checking: A list of documents required for interview is available under the downloads on document section of the website. 

Length of interview: 30 minutes 

Interview structure: Three station interview. The stations will cover different criteria from the person specification. There will be a 10-minute management station, a separate 10-minute clinical station and a separate 10-minute portfolio station.

Preferencing Posts: Preferencing will be made available via Oriel in 2025 and further information can be found on the Medical Specialty Training website. Applicants will be able to preference uncoupled Core Surgical Training posts, Improving Surgical Training pilot posts, Otolaryngology Pilot posts, or a combination of the aforementioned. 

Contacts / Enquiries

Please visit the PGMDE Support Portal where you will find a series of FAQs, and you will be able to submit an enquiry to the London Recruitment Team. 

Programmes will be confirmed directly with the candidate by the appropriate local recruitment office should applicants be successful at interview

Indicative vacancy numbers are available in the table below and broken down by region. In many cases these will be presented as a range (e.g. 25-35) as it is not always possible for regions to know at this stage how many vacancies there will be.

 

It is the intention that indicative post numbers for all regions will be published prior to the application opening date, although this cannot be guaranteed. Please note that this table is not likely to be updated subsequent to indicative numbers and actual numbers will be confirmed when programme preferences are opened later in the round.

Region 

Indicative Numbers 

East Midlands 

39 –  41

East of England 

TBC

Kent, Surrey and Sussex 

39 –  49

London 

78 – 80

North East 

28 – 32

North West – North Western 

45 – 57

North West – Mersey 

25 –  33

South West – Peninsula 

16 –  20

South West – Severn 

TBC

Thames Valley 

28 –  29

Wessex 

23 –  24

West Midlands 

60 –  65

Yorkshire and Humber 

TBC

Scotland 

39 – 41

Wales 

33 – 38

Numbers subject to change

Please be aware that it is not uncommon for vacancy numbers to change as the round progresses.

More commonly, post vacancy numbers can increase as the round goes on (and confirmation of posts becomes available); but it is also possible that numbers can reduce as well.

Links

The following links were included within the advertisement. Some links may only be live or working during the application and recruitment window.

Documents

No downloadable documents were included in the advertisement for 2024-2025. You are advised, instead, to use the Core Surgical Training Applicant information available at: https://medical.hee.nhs.uk/medical-training-recruitment/medical-specialty-training/surgery/core-surgery 

Application Form

For specialty-specific questions please visit the Core Surgical Training Specialty Specific Questions page.

For the generic application form questions applicable to all specialties please visit the application form page.

Competition Ratios

Mobile Users: This table is best viewed on a computer or tablet device, or in landscape orientation on your phone. In portrait orientation press the + icon at the left of the row to see more information.

For further information and all competition data please see the Competition Ratios page.

Fill Rates

Mobile Users: This table is best viewed on a computer or tablet device, or in landscape orientation on your phone. In portrait orientation press the + icon at the left of the row to see more information.

For regional fill rate data please see the Core Surgical Training Fill Rates page.