Wrist watchNews just in - the Education Committee has kindly extended the deadline for ESCP-funded observerships and three or six-month fellowship opportunities for one week. You now have until Friday 17 August to apply for these opportunities - but this will be the only extension given.

Both observerships and fellowships are proving popular, with more applications than previous years for some of them. The Committee feels an extended deadline will be workable, given the recently streamlined and vastly improved application and review process.

“We want to make the process as easy, accessible and welcoming as possible to all members,” said Fellowship Programme Chair, Imran Aslam.

“The online application process is proving much easier for members to access and apply, and from an assessment point of view we can deal with the information more quickly as it is coming to us in one place, in a standardised format.”

Candidates will be marked against standardised criteria and given individual and transparent feedback on their applications. The committee will be looking for opportunities to help those who are not quite ready this time around to develop for future opportunities but noted that often candidates are more ready than they think.

"We would hate for someone to miss out on a place because they were too shy to try - please rest assured that your application will be treated with the utmost respect and we will endeavour to give you useful and constructive feedback. But, you might just be successful! So, it is always worth applying." said Imran.

The Committee invites all members who have ever considered applying for a fellowship to ‘give it a go’ and be sure to attend the Fellowship Updates session at the Scientific and Annual Meeting in Nice this year, where they will be able to hear first-hand experiences of how observerships and Fellowships have helped previous trainees develop.

In the meantime, interested candidates are urged to review the Observership and Fellowship opportunities available in the Education and Training Hub. You can also review previous Fellows’ and trainees’ reports of their learning experiences.

There you have it - one last chance to get your application in by Friday 17 August!