Foundation recruitment

Recruitment to the foundation programme is a fair and open competitive selection process for UK and non-UK medical graduates, which is overseen by the UK Foundation Programme Office (UKFPO). For detailed information on the current recruitment round, please see the UKFPO website.

Applicants are asked to read the UKFPO Applicant's Handbook carefully to ensure that all deadlines and requirements are met.

If you have any questions that are not covered on this website, please email Wales Foundation School with your query.

Application process 

Applications are completed through the online recruitment portal Oriel. Eligibility applicants will need to register themselves in order to complete the Eligibility application form. UK medical school graduates will be nominated by their medical schools and invited to register via email.

Please see the UKFPO'S Website for deadlines for the current recruitment round.  

Foundation application webinar (30 August 2022)

UK foundation programme (including LIFT)

Our standard foundation programmes contain 3 x 4 month placements, in both the F1 and F2 years.

In Wales, there are also "Longitudinal Integrated Foundation Training" (LIFT) programmes included in the standard foundation programme offering. The LIFT model aims to improve clinical progress and patient centred practice, as well as the quality of the educational experience. As opposed to receiving one 4-month block of a specialty (e.g. General Practice), LIFT foundation doctors experience 2 sessions per week (1 day) in the specialty throughout their F1 year. This runs alongside the traditional 4-month placements, allowing doctors to experience an additional specialty compared to standard foundation programmes.

You can find further information on LIFT programmes in the on the  Foundation Programmes Page. 

Specialised Foundation Programme (SFP)

In addition to the LIFT programmes, the Wales Foundation School offers a number of academic and other additional opportunities, including medical education, leadership and Quality Improvement (QI) in both the F1 and F2 years, through Specialised Foundation Programmes (SFPs). However, unlike other Foundation Schools, matching to these academic programmes will take place after allocation to the Wales Foundation School, as part of standard recruitment to the Foundation Programme. This will allow everyone allocated to Wales to consider the option of an SFP, though participation in the academic and other extra-curricular activities is dependent on progression in all other aspects of the Foundation Programme when in post. The Wales Foundation School, as a Specialised Unit of Application (SUoA), does not run a separate SFP recruitment process.

Foundation Priority Programme (FPP)

The main aim of the FPP is to maximise the opportunity for applicants who wish to be allocated to areas that are typically under recruited and therefore improve supply to specialty training and beyond. The national foundation priority programme booklet can be found on the Foundation Programmes page.

Programme preferencing

For the foundation priority programme, applicants will be asked to rank programmes (rather than foundation schools) within their online application.

For the standard foundation programme (including SFP and LIFT programmes), applicants will rank foundation schools within their online application. These can be amended after submission, up until the foundation school Ranking deadline.

Applicants allocated to Wales as part of the foundation programme primary list are asked to rank the Foundation programmes in order of preference, and will be notified of their relative score within the cohort to assist with this process - this information will be available in the preferencing process section during the programme preferencing period.

Wales completes a "one stage" preferencing process, which means that applicants rank all the programmes within Wales.

Allocation to a foundation programme is based on the overall applicant score (EPM + Educational Achievement + SJT score). An auto-match software moves through applicants (from highest scoring to lowest) and matches them to their highest ranked available programme. If there are no ranked programmes available, a programme will be allocated randomly from those remaining after matching is complete.

Details of F1 and F2 programmes can be found on the Foundation Programmes page.