Posts and preferencing
Dental Foundation Training (DFT) applicant guideDuring the preferencing window you will be able to rank the schemes you are interested in.
You are advised to read this page in full and the Oriel user guide prior to expressing your preferences.
Scheme preference selection
The preferencing window will open on 11 April 2026 (subject to change) and will close on 27 April 2026 (Subject to change).
You will receive notification via Oriel messages when this opens and a reminder before it closes. Please also see our timeline to familiarise yourself with the key dates.
Selecting your preferences
You must carefully consider your preference choices.
Limiting the number of preferences will limit the chances of being offered a placement whilst you need to factor in the regions/practices you really want to train in.
Updating programme preferences involves marking each option as being in one of up to two different states:
- Preference - If an option is marked as a ‘Preference’ it means you wish to be considered for schemes within this programme. You must rank these options to specify an order of preference. If you come to be made an offer you will be offered your highest ranked preference where schemes remain available
- Not Wanted – If an option is marked as ‘Not Wanted’ it means you are not willing to accept an offer for this programme under any circumstances and therefore do not wish to be considered for these schemes
You can be matched to any preference in the Preference column so please ensure you rank places you wish to train in.
This is a mandatory part of the recruitment process and you will not be included in any offer matches without have preferences selected.
It is mandatory have read through and understood the COPDEND guidance on education and training with close family members.
Important: Important
If you don’t rank a wide selection of schemes, and your rank isn’t high enough to get into the few you picked, you won’t be offered a place. That’s called "preferencing yourself out".
To avoid this:
- Choose as many schemes as possible when preferences reopen and this gives you the best chance of being matched to one. If you’ve already widened your choices, there’s nothing more to do
This may mean that candidates who would be eligible for an offer based on their score and rank will not receive an offer of a training post.
In this case candidates are considered to have pre-emptively declined an offer of a post "preferencing yourself out" as the only vacancies left are in schemes that the candidate is not prepared to train in appear under the 'Not wanted' list.
Your preferences will not be used as a scoring criterion and will not be available to assessors.
Amending preferences
You can amend your preference ranking whilst the window is open and recommend taking a screenshot/copy of your preferences as you will not be able to see this information until the preferencing window has re-opened.
Once this window is closed we will reopen after the first offer match has been released.
After the first iteration of offers, you will be able to amend your preferences intermittently up until the upgrade deadline date 4 June 2026.
If you did not receive an offer you can follow the guidance above to amend your preferences.
It is your responsibility to ensure your preferences have saved as you wish and it is recommended that you log out of your Oriel account and then log back in after making any changes to preferencing to ensure your selection is confirmed.
The recruitment office responsible for your offers will determine which columns are available to you.
To update your preferences, find the relevant application in your My applications list, and click on it.
You will see an option at the top of the Application/Summary screen that reads ‘Update Preferences’ if the preferencing window is currently open.
Click on this option to access the preferencing screen.
To order your preferences you can click on an option you want to move then drag and drop it into another column.
If you want to save the changes you have made click the ‘Save’ button. If you wish to cancel the changes click ‘Cancel’ and your preferences will revert back to the last time you saved.
The order in which you have saved your programme preferences at the time the window closes will be used to match applicants to available schemes.
Post offers preferencing information
Once offers are released, preferencing will reopen periodically and you will be notified via Oriel of these dates.
When preferencing you must consider the following:
- Any offer is made in accordance with the national rank you receive as a result of your SJT score and preferences made
- The first ranked candidate will be offered their first preference. This will continue until all posts within that iteration have been offered
- If your first preferenced scheme has no further vacancies, you will be offered your second or subsequent choice. This process will continue until all vacant positions have been filled
Amending preferences after receiving an offer
- If you received an offer, you will need to make a decision on either accepting or declining the offer
- If you chose to decline, you will not be included any further offer matches
- Once you have accepted the offer, you can only amend your preferences if you opt in for upgrades
- This option is available as a button on the offer page
- Once you have opted into upgrades, you will be able to see your preferences at the bottom of that page, and you can then amend them accordingly
- You cannot remove the scheme you have been offered at this stage, and you should only rank schemes higher than your offered scheme rank if you definitely want to go to them as upgrades are automatic and you cannot revert to your original offer if an upgrade is made
- If you want to save the changes you have made click the ‘Save’ button. If you wish to cancel the changes click ‘Cancel’ and your preferences will revert back to the last time you saved
Page last reviewed: 31 July 2025
Next review due: 31 July 2027