President Elect Welcome

Dear Colleague, First, let me express my genuine gratitude to you from myself and on behalf of the College for being an Examiner.

Examining is central to what any training body does. Our trainees, our practitioner colleagues, our regulators and our patients look to us to ensure that we can identify competence and do so consistently in a way that is valid and reliable. Of course, the exams represent one component of an overall assessment programme (which also includes assessments in the workplace, and judgements on trainees’ attainment of curricular outcomes). But the exams are crucial in that they represent summative assessments which inform key progression criteria for trainees. In that sense, they go to the core of the College’s work. High quality examinations are the mark of a high performing training body.

“High quality examinations are the mark of a high performing training body”

Two of the College Strategic objectives (2019 -24) refer specifically to exams: To deliver excellent training with a timely and relevant examinations structure that best supports the career path of our trainees to deliver safer patient care To continually enhance the quality of our examinations. Work is substantially underway on both of these, led by Professor Michael Griffin, the Examinations Committee and the Examinations Department. As we set out to evaluate, and seek external evaluation of the overall quality of our examinations, we do so confident that our current practices are rigorous and serve as a sound basis for further improvement. This is in large part due to the diligence, expertise and hard work of you, our examiners.

Thank you.

Professor George Shorten

President Elect, CAI