Abroad

F1 Abroad

Please note that not all UK medical schools facilitate the completion of F1 abroad.  Please contact your local medical school for further details.

F2 Abroad

It may be possible for Foundation Doctors to complete their F2 year outside of the UK. The process is lengthy and success not guaranteed, as overseas programmes can only be approved if they meet rigorous UK training requirements : The Foundation Doctor will need to arrange a placement abroad which will give them the training in the F2 competences they need.

STFS has an obligation to ensure that service delivery within NHS trusts is not compromised by the approval of any F2 abroad applications and reserves the right to decline all applications on this basis if it is deemed necessary. A maximum of 4 F2 abroad applications for F2 programmes commencing in August 2012 will be approved.

The Foundation Doctor must get the proposed training programme agreed by the Foundation School before taking up the placement and demonstrate how they will achieve Foundation competences. The overseas institution must agree to use the competency-based assessment programme and to assess the Foundation Doctor in line with the requirements of the UK Foundation Programme Curriculum.

Guidance for F1 Doctors and Host Institutions and an application form is available to download from the bottom of this page. You must notify STFS by no later than 10 January 2012 if you wish to undertake F2 abroad during 2012/13 by e-mailing F2allocations@stfs.org.uk.

STFS had hoped to be able to offer some pre-approved overseas F2 programmes, but unfortunately, despite a considerable number of e-mails to different centres in Australia and New Zealand, we have not managed to do so. This is for a number of reasons including: the fact that the number of medical graduates in Australia is increasing, so there are fewer vacancies; the timing of their year is different from ours; and that some posts include periods of activities such as rotating night cover, which are not approved for training However, a small number of doctors have successfully arranged and completed their F2 abroad in both New Zealand and Australia in the last 2 years and we are able to provide further details of these placements if required.