Answer as follows:
“I was wondering if you had any experience of when it is best to apply – before or after Foundation Years?”
Personally, my take is you should complete FY1 in U.K., so you get full GMC registration. That’s what I did, before returning to Sg.
Furthermore, FY1 counts towards the housemanship year in Singapore, unless you want the authentic “Singapore” experience to acclimatize better to the local system.
Having worked in both systems, work life balance is much worse in Singapore, and you work many more weekends and start earlier than the UK.
“I would want to apply for specialty training as well… I’d be grateful if you could share some tips.”
To a large extent, Singapore as with most countries favours locals and Permanent Residents for specialist training.
Programme directors will strongly encourage you to take up PR ship at some point in your career.
It’s a similar process getting into a competitive speciality as it is elsewhere around the world –
- Get to know the department by working there on rotation, or reaching out and writing a paper with “important” programme people.
- Extra brownie points for publications, conferences etc that demonstrates an interest.
Cheers
