The colorectal specialist’s life is never quiet, and that is never truer than in the earlier years of your career as you seek to learn and practice as much as you can, alongside very challenging workloads. As such, it can be easy to postpone researching and applying for extra learning opportunities, always consoling yourself with a promise to undertake it the following year.

But, an ESCP training opportunity will be so professionally rewarding that you will wonder how you could ever have considered continuing without it. By attending one of our Fellowships or other learning opportunities, you will set yourself up for success by gaining new skills, contacts and experience which set you apart from your peers and help you define your professional vision. 

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We’ve designed our application system to offer a structured and objective assessment of each applicant's portfolio and operative experience, and to ensure fairness and equal opportunities for all trainees. But, the onus is on you to apply in the first place.

Here, in no particular order, are five reasons for making this the year you finally get around to attending a Fellowship or other learning opportunity:

  1. There is lots of choice - from 2 two-day pre-congress learning missions to four-week observerships and three or six-month fellowships every year, ESCP offers a range of different opportunities which will challenge and advance your professional practice. Regardless of the length or location of the opportunity, the host teams have been carefully chosen for their depth of expertise and ability to immerse you in a valuable learning experience.
  2. You will supercharge your skills and expertise - ESCP Fellowships and observerships are designed to expose you to as much practical knowledge and professional development as possible. In the case of observerships you will be able to interact with and ask questions of your host as you attend all manner of clinical and surgical cases; while with Fellowships you will directly collaborate with like-minded professionals whose expertise will compliment your own. 100% of our previous Fellows, for example, have left their experiences feeling professionally enriched and more confident in their own abilities.
  3. You will broaden your network - In addition to the new skills and expertise you will develop, attending an ESCP observership or Fellowship has the added advantage of instantly boosting your contacts and network. Many of our previous Fellows have ignited enduring friendships which have continued to enhance their professional network long after they returned home.
  4. The change of scenery will refresh and inspire you - One of the reasons the ESCP Fellowship Programme team focuses on offering international opportunities such as the Japan and Korea Society of Coloproctology Travelling Fellowships is that we know the value of being transplanted to a new environment and challenged with a different setup, culture and system. This heightens your senses and sharpens your mind in a refreshing way as you seek to compare what you already know with what you are learning.
  5. You can apply online - it is easy and intuitive to apply online for all our training and Fellowship opportunities. Simply follow the links from the relevant opportunity to fill in and submit your application with the click of a button. This means you can apply right up to the day of the deadline, although our advice is to always give yourself plenty of time!

Hopefully if you’ve read this far you will have no doubt that achieving at least one Fellowship or observership in your early career is vital to your professional development. To learn more about the opportunities currently available, visit the Fellowships and training opportunity page.

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