If you pass the initial application stage of recruitment, you will be invited to participate in stage two: the assessment centre.
You will receive an information pack around two weeks before your assessment, which will contain all the information you need to find the assessment centre and get ready for the process.
During the assessment, you will undertake an interview, four interactive exercises, two written exercises, and a numerical and logical reasoning test.
The Interview
This will be 20 minutes in total. You will be asked four questions based on how you have dealt with specific situations in the past, and you must answer each during a timed five minute period.
The timing will be monitored by the interviewer, who will stop you if you run over the five minutes allocated.
The questions will relate to the key competencies needed to be a successful police officer; for example, good communication skills.
The Interactive Exercises
These exercises take the form of role play, where you will assume the role of a newly-appointed Customer Services Officer at a fictitious retail and leisure complex.
There will be four exercises in total. For each role-play, you will be given five minutes to study information on the upcoming scenario. You can also make notes to use during the actual exercise.
Once the five minutes is over, a buzzer will sound and you will move to the ‘activity room’, where you will act out the scenario with a trained actor or actress. You will take the initiative and they will respond to you using a strict set of lines, which they will have rehearsed beforehand.
A trained assessor will be in the room making notes on how you deal with the situation. An independent observer may also be in the room.
The Written, Numerical and Logic tests
In the next stage of the assessment, you will complete two written exercises which will last 20 minutes each. Before you start you will receive a thorough briefing, and there is the option to make notes on a separate piece of paper which will not be assessed.
You will be notified during the written exercises when you have five minutes remaining, and again when there is one minute remaining.
In the numerical reasoning test, you will be asked to answer 25 multiple choice questions which will measure your ability to solve numerical problems accurately. You will have 12 minutes to complete the test.
In the verbal logical reasoning test, you must answer 31 multiple choice questions in 25 minutes, which will measure your ability to reason logically when given facts about events.