The training and education of Professionals Complementary to Dentistry (PCDs) PCDs should be based on a skills escalator approach incorporating flexibility in roles and entry should be inclusive facilitating recruitment of individuals with few formal qualifications. This is one of the findings in a new study looking at options of the training and education of PCDs.

In the study, 'An appraisal of options of the training and education of Professionals Complementary to Dentistry' by J. T. Newton, K. Jones, P. D. Newton and D. E. Gibbons to be published in the next issue of the BDJ, a review of training and education programmes for PCDs throughout the world was undertaken and the programmes of training were said to vary along four dimensions: the role which the learner trains for; the nature of the qualifications required for entry to the training pathway, the method of training and the location of training.

An educational model of the training and education of PCDs is proposed based upon these four dimensions, which seeks to maximise the benefits of the elements whilst minimising the disadvantages.

Read about the GDC Chief Executive and Registrar Anthony Townsend's views on career pathways and education for PCDs in the latest issue (Spring 2005) of the BDJ supplement, Vital.