The new Young Dentists Committee including Chair Jeremy Boyles (seventh from right), and Vice Chairs Malaaika Al-Koky (eighth from right) and Kirsty Dickinson (sixth from right).
Early career dentists call for a credible workforce strategy
The Young Dentists Committee set out their goals.
Jeremy Boyles, a GDP based in York, joins us as the new chair of the YDC (Young Dentists Committee), and is keen to find solutions to the challenges facing the workforce. Joining him is Malaaika Al-Koky, a Birmingham-based orthodontic registrar, and Kirsty Dickson, an orthodontic specialty registrar in Scotland.
The new committee plans to lobby the Government for a credible workforce development strategy, to ensure the needs of early career dentists are met and clear pathways exist to ensure effective career progression.
There need to be changes to how career progression is supported so that recruitment processes for post-graduate training programmes work better and that gaining enhanced skills in the GDS is properly rewarded.
Jeremy said “We know dentists graduating today face unique challenges. Building a fulfilling career in dentistry feels more challenging than it should be for graduates saddled with eye-watering debts, overregulation and an NHS so broken there is a chance we will be handcuffed to it.
We are here to ensure there are clear solutions to these challenges, so the transition from dental school into the early years is more rewarding and enjoyable.
The next generation of dentists need a credible workforce strategy, an improved framework for mentoring, and better career development opportunities.”
Our career hub provides a central resource to support dentists at all career stages to plan their professional development. The YDC wants to work to make this resource even more valuable to colleagues, and to look at how we can create mentorship opportunities to support those starting out on their career in dentistry.
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