In the UK, after graduation, doctors must train for two years before starting their specialty training. These two years are equivalent or similar to internship years in other countries. International medical graduates can join this training program but only starting from the second year, since most IMG take a year of internship in their countries. The NHS offers FY2 spots in UK hospitals, which are not service jobs, but rather are included in a training program, which is called FY2 Standalone training Program. And like any training job, their is an eligibility criteria to join it. One of the most challenging eligibility criteria is the English proficiency, which was previously proved by IELTS, having contact with patients in English for 75% of the time or having a three months experience in the UK. So if you are from a country that speaks a language different than English, then the only available option you have to apply for this program is taking the IELTS test. However, this in itself was challenging, because the Person specification criteria states that you must attain at least a score of 7.5 in every domain of the IELTS test. The good news is, OET has been added as an accepted proof of English proficiency in the newest version of the FY2 Person specification (2020). You are eligible to apply if you got a score of 400 in each domain of the OET test (listening, speaking, writing and reading). But bear in mind that the validity of the OET test is 2 years, and it must be valid until you start the training program which is in August. This means that if you got your OET test before August 2018, then this English certificate will be expired by August 2020 (the start of the training program). You can download the Person F2 specification criteria for the year 2020 here. The door for applying to this training program opens in January, and there are some criteria that are "Essential" and others that are "Desirable". Essential criteria are those that you must have in order to apply, where as the desirable criteria are those that would boost your application to get shortlisted or interviewed. Essential Criteria include: GMC registeration, took an ILS course, has the right to work in the UK, being a safe doctor, and finally applicant must prove their proficiency in English language. What are your odds of being accepted? Last years statistics shows that 929 applicants applied, and there was 520 posts available. However, of these posts, only 343 got filled. Among the 343 filled posts, 50 of them were International Medical Graduates. This means that the competition between non-IMG and IMG was 7 to 1. But this could change because previously, the only training program available for IMG was the FY2 standalone, however, right now all training jobs have been added to the Shortage Occupation List, which means all IMG are eligible to apply to all training programs, not only the FY2 standalone program. Put other way, instead of competing with IMG in one training program, now this competition is distributed among other training programs.
