The RCSEd Trainees’ Committee is dedicated to representing trainees and ensuring their voices help shape College activities and decisions. Hear from Chair Michael Okocha about his experience and what inspired him to get involved and how to apply.
For me, there was only ever one College of choice.
My mother was born in Edinburgh and is fiercely proud of her Scottish heritage, and I have family in Kirkcaldy. So the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh has always been our family favourite.
But the pull of the College is about more than family loyalty. RCSEd has a history and identity that are difficult not to feel. Founded in 1505, it is the oldest surgical college in the world. Every day I have the privilege of serving in this role, I am conscious of that legacy. To sit on the Council of an institution with more than five centuries of surgical history is, at times, genuinely surreal.
Yet what matters most to me is not simply the age of the College, but what it chooses to do with that history.
RCSEd does not merely say that it supports trainees. It has created a Trainees’ Committee with a formal voice in College life and national advocacy. That distinction matters. Trainees do not need symbolic representation; they need meaningful influence in the rooms where decisions are made, priorities are set and the future of surgical training is shaped.
In this role, I have been able to contribute directly to multiple government reviews, help set agendas that have been listened to, and work with colleagues across the United Kingdom to highlight the realities of modern surgical training. These include the cost of training, access to examinations, wellbeing, educational supervision, curriculum development and the need to widen access to surgical careers.
I have also been able to champion areas I care deeply about, including medical student engagement, the 1505 Club, and the importance of helping students and trainees see the College not as a distant institution, but as a professional home.
Surgical training is demanding. It is expensive, competitive and often personally difficult. Trainees are balancing examinations, rotations, research, family life, service pressures and the uncertainty of progression. Advocacy in that context cannot be passive. It must be organised, credible and persistent.
That is why I joined the Trainees’ Committee.
I joined because I believe trainees should be represented by people who understand training from the inside. I joined because I believe the College must remain relevant to those at the beginning and middle of their surgical careers. I joined because I wanted to help ensure that the trainee voice was not only heard, but respected.
The history of RCSEd is extraordinary. But history only matters if it gives us the courage to improve the present.
For me, being part of the Trainees’ Committee has been one of the great honours of my career so far. It has allowed me to serve trainees, contribute to national conversations, and play a small part in the continuing story of a College that has shaped surgery for more than 500 years.
And yes, my mother is still pleased I chose Edinburgh.