The Northern Ireland Medical and Dental Training Agency is responsible for funding, managing and supporting postgraduate medical and dental education within the Northern Ireland Deanery.   It provides a wide range of functions in the organisation, development and quality assurance of Postgraduate Medical and Dental Education and in the delivery and quality assurance of Continuing Professional Development for general, medical and dental practitioners.

The Agency is responsible for:

• organising, accrediting and reviewing educational and training activities for doctors and dentists;
• monitoring quality standards in medical and dental education and assessing the educational value of training posts;
• operating the appointment process for the selection of doctors/dentists to foundation, core and specialty training programmes
• managing the dental vocational training and general professional training schemes;
• managing foundation and specialty, including general practice, training programmes ;
• implementing and developing a framework for regular, assessment, appraisal and annual review of doctors and dentists in training;
• providing careers information and advice to those in training;
• providing support for doctors and dentists in difficulty and those with disabilities or special needs
• advising on the needs of international medical and dental graduates training in Northern Ireland;
• facilitating the provision of less than full-time training opportunities and out of programme training and research ;
• administering the regional budgets for the training and study leave of doctors and dentists in the training grades;
• the provision of authoritative advice to the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety;
• responding to wider changes in the regulation, supervision and quality assurance of medical and dental education and training.
   

To reflect the different training pathways the Agency is divided into three functional departments for the provision of training in general practice, dentistry and the hospital specialties/public health medicine. Overall management responsibility rests with the Chief Executive/Postgraduate Dean. There are currently 126 staff, including a large number of medical and dental professionals, on the payroll of the Agency. 60 members of staff are based at the Agency’s Headquarters in Beechill House.