Foreword The educational objectives of training for general practice and the methods which are employed to achieve them are continually changing. Their publication is not so much a dictat to teachers as a challenge to all of us involved in teaching and learning to examine, criticise, and change. This document on training the general practitioner brings together educational objectives agreed by the Royal College of General Practitioners with three academic bodies: the Royal College of Psychiatrists, the British Paediatric Society, and the British Geriatrics Society. The psychiatric objectives were first published in 1975 and already experience in using them and the experience of large numbers of vocational training schemes has led to the development of alternative objectives and measurements. The Royal College of General Practitioners and the Royal College of Psychiatrists have already begun work on a revised version of this document. The College therefore publishes these objectives as an interim measure in a continuing story. The Education Committee of Council welcomes readers' comments and suggestions for further improvements. Marshall Marinker Chairman of Education Committee of Council 14 Princes Gate Hyde Park London SW7 1 PU