First Round

By 30th June 2010

MPharm students - Submit the name and contact details of your academic referee to prevent delays in getting references. . Hospitals are unlikely to look favourably upon students who don’t meet deadlines.

By 31st August 2010

Submit your applications to four hospitals of your choice. Consider carefully whether to apply to more than two hospitals marked by the symbol *. You will be given the opportunity to rank your applications from 1 to 4 to indicate your first, second, third or fourth choice of hospital. If you wish, you may rank only some hospitals, or none of them.

By 6th September 2010

Your applications will be sent electronically to each of your chosen hospitals. Each School of Pharmacy will receive a list of students and the hospitals they have applied to shortly after this date.

September 2010

Your chosen hospitals may phone, email or write to you inviting you for interview. Please ensure that the addresses you provide on your CV will be usable in September 2010 and ensure that your inbox has room to receive mail.

Interviews will take place in September 2010 so please arrange your holidays so that you can attend interviews if invited. Interviews are usually fixed and cannot normally be postponed; please inform the hospital if you are unable to attend an interview so that someone else can take your place.

You can check your application status for each of your chosen hospitals when you log on to the website. You will be assigned one of three codes:

• ‘Under consideration’ – this means that the hospital has not yet decided whether to invite you for interview or not.
• ‘Invited for interview’ - this code is used if you have been shortlisted for an interview (the hospital will also contact you directly to provide details).
• ‘NOT invited for interview’ this code is used if you have NOT been shortlisted for an interview. You will also receive an email to confirm this.

Do not contact Pharmalife or hospital Human Resources (Personnel) departments to find out if you will be offered an interview. Neither has access to this information.

If you have not heard by 1st October 2010, make contact with the hospital using the contact details in the book or on the application website.

By 1st October 2010

You should accept or refuse an offer of a pre-registration training position on, or preferably before, 1st October 2010. Please read the guidance below on what to do if you are offered a position.

Guidance on what to do if you are offered a pre-registration training position

The NHS timetable for recruitment of pre-registration trainee pharmacists in England and Wales may differ from recruitment timetables in community pharmacy. This could cause a dilemma for you if you are offered a pre-registration training place before being able to attend interviews with other organisations. You may wonder if you should you accept the post offered or not? What if it’s not your 1st choice of hospital? What if you turn it down but then don’t receive another offer? To help students, the NHS Regional Pre-registration Training Managers made the following agreement on accepting or rejecting offers:

When do I have to make my decision on whether to accept or reject an offer?

• You must notify the employer of your decision to accept or refuse of an offer of a pre-registration training position on, or preferably before, 1st October 2010
• Employers should not pressurise you to accept an offer prior to 1st October 2010 as this is in neither your best interests nor the employer’s. However if you are happy with the offer you can accept it prior to 1st October 2010 and refuse all other offers immediately
• If an offer is made after 1st October 2010, the employer may ask you to give them a definite decision within 24 hours of them making you the offer

Holding onto an offer is defined as neither accepting the offer nor refusing it. You may hold onto one offer whilst you are awaiting the outcome of an interview with a preferred employer but should reject one offer if you are made a second offer, so you only ever keep one ‘in hand’. This process can continue until you have heard from all your options, then you should make your final decision. You should inform the employer if you do not wish to accept the offer as soon as possible so that the position can be offered to somebody else.

What do I do if I receive two or more offers?

• If you receive two or more offers, think very carefully before accepting one of them. By accepting an offer either verbally or in writing, you are entering into a legally binding contract. Once you accept an offer you are expected to honour your acceptance
• You should not hold onto more than one offer at any time whilst making a decision. If you hold onto multiple offers you deprive other students of receiving an offer of employment

Please note – The NHS honours this agreement and we expect students to do so too. Standards of honesty and trust are expected of all pharmacy students as described in the Student Code of Conduct

If you are being pressurised or are aware of anyone pressuring students to give formal acceptance prior to 1st October 2010 please inform Helen Middleton, Lead for the NHS National Recruitment Scheme for pre-registration trainee pharmacists (England & Wales) helen.middleton@chelwest.nhs.uk 020 7763 6585

Second Round

By 22nd October 2010 MPharm students who are applying for the 1st time submit the name and contact details of their academic referee.

By 29th October 2010 Submit your applications to four hospitals of your choice if you wish to be considered for the second round. You should hear in early November from those hospitals wishing to interview you.

Later in the year

Now it's up to you. Good Luck!