'The Next Stage Review: A High Quality Workforce' stated that 'new work needs to be undertaken to develop more reliable and valid selection tools for recruitment' to Foundation Programme Training.

This was based, to some extent, on concerns about the previous system which ranked applicants using a combined score derived from answers to a set of ‘white space’ questions and an academic quartile ranking provided by the applicant's medical school.

The following key issues with the previous process were identified:

• Applicants answered white space questions in their own time, which made it harder to ensure that the work was their own
• Marking the white space questions was labour intensive
• Quartiles were calculated differently at each medical school

In response to this, the Medical Schools Council was commissioned by the Department of Health to lead a Project Group to carry out an option appraisal for the best approach for selection of applicants into the UK Foundation Programme and allocation to foundation schools. The recommended options, a Situational Judgement Test (SJT) and an Educational Performance Measure (EPM) were defined, developed and piloted in 2010-2011, and full evaluation and analysis of the pilot results and of a full-scale Parallel Recruitment Exercise have been undertaken.

Applications to the Foundation Programme 2013 will be based upon:

• An invigilated SJT to assess aptitude for the Foundation Programme (to replace 'white space' questions); and
• An EPM to reflect educational performance at medical school up to the point of application to the Foundation Programme (to replace quartiles)