Hi everyone, I'm Prateek and in this video we're going to be looking at the dental foundation
training application program for 2022 entry. If you want to see similar educational content
make sure to subscribe to the channel. Now due to COVID, the application for DFT places has changed
drastically over the last couple of years, so in this video I'm going to talk you through
some of the key steps in the application process and give you a couple of hints and tips along the
way. Before we go on, as with anything relating to COVID, it's really important to stress that these
may change depending on what happens with the pandemic, so the main place to stay up to date
with information is using the COPDEND website. DFT is generally a 12 month employed program working
in NHS dental services and typically, people will do this as soon as qualifying. DFT is crucial in
enabling you to work on the NHS. Along your DFT process and your DFT year you will have certain
competencies that you have to meet. So the main source of information regarding the application
process and any other information regarding DFT is the COPDEND website - they have a
huge number of documents there. To give you an idea of the competition for these places, the DFTs that
are due to start this coming September had around 900 jobs on offer and this is slightly fewer than
the number of candidates applying, so there may be some people left without a job. As with Dental
Core Training and previous DFT applications, this is a national recruitment process so all the final
year dental students and people potentially from abroad or who have been unsuccessful in previous
years will apply through the same platform, Oriel, and everyone will be measured against each other.
Ultimately through the interview process and application process you will then be given a rank
and this rank will determine your job options. Health Education England have confirmed that the
application process this year will involve two key parts - a situational judgment test
and a virtual communication scenario. There will be no face-to-face interviews in this application
round. The SJT will account for 75% of your mark and the communication scenario will account for 25%
of your mark which will then ultimately give you a ranking. So here are the rough dates. Applications
open mid-August and they will then close towards the start of September and this is also the
deadline for any disability applications that you may want to put in so make sure you get those in
at the same time. The SJT will then be done some point in November and then later on, either late in
November or early December we expect the virtual communication scenarios to be done. Preferencing
and offers will usually happen towards the end of the academic year, though these dates are still
to be confirmed. So the application opens in the middle of August and will be on the Oriel website
as a job advert. So you need to register on the Oriel website, you can put all your details in even
ahead of time so this can almost self-populate any applications you do in the future but as soon as
that job advert comes up you need to click on it and start an application form. To ensure that you
take part in the DFT recruitment this year, you need to make sure you submit the form before
the deadline. If we then look at the situational judgement test. So like I said, this accounts for 75%
of the mark towards your ranking. This will be held at a Pearson Vue test centre similar to your
driving theory test. You will usually have around 105 minutes to answer anywhere between 110 to 120
questions. Situational judgment tests are not an assessment of your clinical ability or knowledge.
They are more an assessment of your professional attributes and your behaviours. You can find a bit
more detail about these factors on the COPDEND website and what will actually be tested. As the
dates are for the SJT approach, you will be sent an email with information on how to book your test
slot at your chosen Pearson Vue centre. It is on a first come, first served basis so you need to make
sure that you respond to the email and sort out a time slot as soon as possible, otherwise you may
end up traveling hours to a test centre to try and sit your exam. The best way to prepare for an SJT
I feel is actually practicing them. There are two main types of questions and by practicing mainly
the structure and how to answer these questions, it will mean that when it comes to your SJT, you're
in a better position. There are example SJTs available on the COPDEND website and please make
sure to check out my other video on tips for your situational judgement test which has a huge range
of tips and tricks on how to maximise your SJT score. There are also some really helpful books to
help you practice including the Oxford Assess and Progress book, the Situational Judgment Tests for
Dentistry book and the Dental Foundation Interview guide. Next we have the virtual communication
skills station which will account for 25% of your mark. Again you will be sent an email
advising you of the details for the interview and you need to make sure you accept and you book your
interview appropriately through the provided links. If you don't do this you may not get the
time you want and it might cause you unnecessary stress. The range of scenarios will be available
ahead of time via the Oriel website but out of these you will only be examined on one scenario.
Additionally, actors won't be used - so typically for a communication station you'd usually have
an examiner and you usually have an actor. Some key tips are practicing - practice over Zoom, Microsoft
Teams, whatever it may be with your friends, your family, to just get used to doing an interview on
a virtual setup. So whether it's simple things like looking into the camera rather than at your screen
and how you present yourself in a non-verbal and verbal way over the screen. Other simple things -
make sure you dress appropriately, although it is an online interview you need to still dress as
though you're going to an interview and make sure you're in a good, clean environment where you're
not going to be impacted by poor wi-fi connections or any other noise. Also go and watch my video on
interview tips for online interviews and that will provide you with a bit more detail and some more
information on how to tackle virtual interviews. From these two parts of the application process,
so the situational judgment test and your virtual communication scenario, you will then get a score.
This score will then equate to a rank as I mentioned this is a national recruitment process
so all applicants will be ranked against each other and this will ultimately determine your job
options. So as part of your job options you need to do what we call preferencing and preferencing
involves you ranking where you would like to work from one to however many jobs there are available
and ultimately once the entire process is completed based on your rank and the job
available you will be matched up. So the jobs will be available via the Oriel website again closer to
the time of preferencing and in the year just gone, rather than having regions to preference,
they had to preference all the practices that were providing foundation training places. So there were
a whole lot more to rank compared to the average year where we just usually would rank the regions
they're going to work in and therefore if this is likely to happen again make sure you allocate
plenty of time to do this. Once you've done this, you will submit and lock your preferencing and
then once the offers go out you will be allowed to hold your option for 48 hours and usually you will
get three choices. You will have accept the job you've been given, accept with upgrades or reject
the job you've been given. If you reject the job, you run the risk of not getting a job at all. If
you accept the job, you accept the job you've been presented with whether it is your first rank or it
is your 100th rank - you're accepting that job. The other option accepting with upgrades gives you the
option to potentially be bumped up. So for example if you ranked 100 and you got your 50th choice in
your preferencing, if you accept with upgrades and someone above you drops out of the system for some
reason then you may get moved up your preferences and you may end up getting your 40th preference of
job, so it gives you that opportunity to move up your job preferencing and potentially get a job
that you preferred and this period of upgrade will usually be open for a week after the offers go out.
It's important to stress that upgrades are relatively rare in DFT - they're more common
in DCT because more people tend to drop out of the application system but it's always worth accepting
with upgrades if you want the potential of being moved up your preferencing list. Although you'll
be given lots of information on the schemes and potentially the practices, one of the best ways to
find out about practices is either using their website or alternatively finding someone who's
currently working there as a DFT. Some practices present themselves really well in a block of
text or on their website but actually as a trainee in that environment it's not very nurturing
whereas other practices may not look great online or they may not put a huge amount of information
but actually they're an excellent training practice. A couple of the quick tips with regards
to your DFT application. The first thing is being organised. So I've shared some of the dates with
you here, there'll be lots of emails that go out to you about various points of the application but
make sure you either get a calendar and put these dates in and also you're staying ahead of what's
happening you're already looking at SJTs or you're already looking at setting your Oriel account up
and this will mean that you're not stressing, you're not scrambling around close to deadlines
to try and get things completed. Make sure that after you've watched this video you go to the Oriel
website and go to the COPDEND website and read all the information that's presented to you because
there'll be other little bits of information that I haven't touched upon that may apply to you
and as the application progresses and if there are changes due to the COVID pandemic - those
are the best ways to stay up to date so make sure you stay in touch with us. Familiarising yourself
with Oriel is another good thing to do before you start your application, although it is relatively
easy to use, some aspects can be a bit cumbersome and more difficult to understand so it's worth
like I mentioned going on there, registering an account, starting to navigate the website, see
where the job adverts are published, see how to go about applications and then you'll gradually
become more familiar. And finally practice like I've already said make sure you practice your
SJTs using the books that I've mentioned, I'll put the links in the description. Make
sure you practice your interviews with families, friends etc. So I hope you found this video useful - a
relatively quick summary of the DFT application process but any further questions please feel free
to message me. Please make sure to like, comment and subscribe and until the next video take care!