Applicant Handbook
The applicant handbooks for the 2020 round of recruitment for both England and Wales, and also Scotland, are available to view and download via the Resource Bank of the Oriel Pharmacy Programme portal; please select your handbook carefully when accessing via Oriel. You can also access the England and Wales applicant handbook below.
Applicant Enquiries
In collaboration with HEE (England), HEIW (Wales) and NES (Scotland), the RPS has published answers to commonly asked questions regarding the National Recruitment Scheme.
Further FAQs can be found on the HEE Applicant Support Portal. If your question still hasn’t been answered, then all applicant enquiries, including locked Oriel accounts, must be logged through the HEE Support Portal website. Please access this website from the button below.
Welcome to the Student Zone!

On this page you will find all the key information related to the National Recruitment Scheme, including the Person Specification and the Professional Attributes Framework on which the selection process is based.
The Pharmaceutical Journal has published some articles for students on what you need to know about the Situational Judgement Test (SJT) and Numeracy assessment. Scroll down further on this page for some examples and scoring guidance.
Interested in spending some of your Pre-reg in a GP Surgery?
Many of the programmes we offer via the National Recruitment Scheme offer placements of between three and six months in general practice, in conjunction with hospital or community pharmacy pre-registration training. Read more about these exciting placement opportunities on the HEE website via the button below.
Where are we now in the recruitment cycle?
Employers are currently registering their pre-registration programmes with us which will be displayed within the Oriel system from June 2021. Please see below or the full timetable.
Recruitment Timeline
Activity
Month
Pre-registration Pharmacist training programme information available on Oriel
9th June 2021
Application window opens
9th June 2021 at 12pm
Application window closes
23rd June 2021 at 12pm
MMI selection centre booking window opens
14th July 2021
MMI selection centre booking window closes
21st July 2021
Numeracy/SJT centre booking window opens
4th August 2021
Preferencing window opens
28th July 2021
Numeracy/SJT centre booking window closes
18th August 2021
MMI selection centres held
September 2021
SJT/Numeracy selection centre held (Pearson VUE Test Centres)
October 2021
Preferencing window closes
29th October 2021
First round of offers released
Early November
Offers upgrade deadline
End of November
Programmes commence
July/August 2022