Assessment and selection centre

Eligible applicants will be invited to attend the assessment centre stage of the process. The assessment centre is a computer-based assessment comprising of three exams which assess critical thinking, numerical reasoning and situational judgement.

Applicants are required to pass all three exams and rank highly enough to be considered for an invite to the selection centre/interview.

The assessment centre

Applicants successful at long listing (eligibility checking) will be invited to assessment (written tests of numerical and critical reasoning and a situational judgment, scenario-based, test).

Assessment tests will be taken electronically and offered through test centres at various locations throughout the UK and globally,  Candidates will be required to provide evidence of their identity before sitting tests. Candidates should be careful to check what identity evidence will be accepted at the test centre. Candidates will be given time to familiarise themselves with the test environment before timed tests begin.

The assessment tests will be delivered at Pearson VUE testing centres. Requests to sit the test via remote testing methods will be managed in exceptional circumstances and on a case by case basis.

Assessment tests will be held only on 7 and 8 January 2025.

Applicants will need to reach a minimum standard at the tests of numeracy and critical reasoning and the situational judgment test. Applicants meeting this standard will then be ranked according to their scores at assessment. Applicants failing to meet the minimum standard at assessment centre will be notified at this stage that their application will not proceed further.

The selection centre

Top ranked applicants from the written tests will be invited to a virtual selection centre process to take place from Tuesday 4 March to Thursday 6 March 2025.

This will take the form of a digital interview . Your appointment time will include time for ID checks and candidate briefing so actual appointment time could be up to 60 minutes per candidate.

This is a Selection Centre which is a bit different to the sort of interview you might be used to.  Its purpose is to ensure you are assessed by a range of different people to get a balanced view of your abilities. 

The Selection Centre interview will consist of 6 questions each lasting 6 minutes.  Please expect to be moved on to the next question immediately when the 6 minutes is up. 

Each question assesses specific essential criteria from the person specification.  Other aspects covered in your response to the question, but outside these specific essential criteria, will not be scored.  If your responses do not address the person specification criteria under consideration, you will be prompted towards these criteria.

The questions will be split into 2 interview stations - and each of these will have 3 questions.  You will be assessed by 3 assessors in each station.  Please note that the assessors will not introduce themselves (and you are not expected to introduce yourself) at the start of the station and will start the interview question straight away.  This is to ensure we give each candidate the opportunity to score as highly as possible for each question and keep to time.  Please do not be put off by this. 

Assessor names will be displayed on the interview screen. 

Two of the questions will have an element of preparation time and the information for these questions will be sent to you the day before your booked interview.

All elements of the selection centre will be scored by fully trained assessors. There is a minimum total score set for the selection centre that must be achieved for consideration for appointment. Assessment Centre and Selection Centre requirements must be met before a candidate may be considered for an offer for training. If your score is below the minimum level we have set, you will receive notification that you have been unsuccessful this year.