Surgical Career Paths

In addition to foundation and specialty training, there are opportunities to do a period of clinical academic research.

Entry to surgical training is based on the trainee's progression through medical school and foundation year training.

Potential surgical trainees often identify with a mentor early in their exposure to surgery.

An intercalated or honours degree may also make the applicant more competitive but is not an absolute necessity for career progression.

These two years of broad, generic training include surgical rotations.

Further information about the progression from foundation to specialty surgical training is available from the NHS Education for Scotland (NES) website.


Surgical training posts are competitive but they do not require candidates to have completed a large number of surgical posts during their foundation training.


There are also opportunities to incorporate surgical and academic training for those who have already secured a training number.

The Edinburgh Academic Clinical Track Scheme (ECAT) scheme provides a unique approach to deliver ‘run-through’ training for academic clinicians.

Clinical and academic research posts are also available.


This article was published on