16.1.doc

Tomasz Andrykowski                                                                           Assignment 16.1

Entry Requirements for the Police.

To get to the police there is no height requirements. You need to be over 18 years old, and you need to be in a good mental, psychical and dental health. Also no eye defects, able to distinguish primary colours unaided. Vision of not less than 6/36 in each eye, may be considered with laser surgery.

Very important think is a nationality. You don’t need to be a British Citizen to join the police. You can be EU citizen with no residency restrictions. Your English will be tested so you need to know English very well.  All convictions and cautions need to be declared, judged on individual basis.

To get in to the police you need to fill in the application form correctly. First fill in the photocopy, so you can make all your mistakes on the photocopy.

Most forms will ask you to write about additional information (personal statement) that may be relevant to the job.

You need to present (“sell”) yourself in a good way. On your application form you need to put all important information’s, and link to the job that you are applying for. Everyone should have skills such as: good communication with other people, and be able to work in a group (teamwork).

You need to make sure that it’s easy to read and nothing is missing. Give it to someone else to check it.

When you complete the application form, you will be invited to an assessment centre. Then you need to complete PIRT (Police Initial Recruitment Test):

-2 short written tests to see how good your communication skills are, then a verbal logical reasoning test,

-a numeracy test,

-4 role plays,

-interview with a selection officer.

During the tests and the interview the selection officers will be looking for the following competences: Community and customer focus; Personal responsibility; Resilience; Respect for diversity; Problem solving; Teamwork and Effective communication.

If you have been successful during the aforementioned stages you will be asked to attend the next stage, which is medical and fitness test.

The police work related fitness test consists of the following elements:

-Speed and Agility Test (you need to run along 13 m in 27 seconds or less).

-Bleep Test (to pass that test you need to get to the 6.1 level).

-Grip Strength Test (using a grip dynamometer, you need to squeeze as hard as you can, pass rate is 32kg).

-Dynamic Strength Test (you test your back strength which is 35kg, and a chest strength, 34kg).

If you pass everything the next step to join the police is an interview. Before the interviews make sure that you will not be late and that you know where you need to go. You need to look smart, (shirt, and tie) tidy and have a big smile on your mouth. Important is that you will be honest, kind, and friendly. Important is that before the interview you will research about the job, and other important information’s that you should know.

The person that will interview you (usual police officer) will ask you about everything that you put on your application form, so don’t lie about your interests or hobbies. Everything you like to do will be good, because by doing what you really like, you are improving your skills.

This is good if in the past you had some experience with a police. For example if you completed some work experience in the police station…etc.

They test your fitness level because to get to the police you need to be very fit and healthy. This is important because policeman need to run/chase after criminals.

Advantages of Psychometric Tests:
Properly developed psychometric tests and questionnaires, when used by competent and appropriately qualified individuals, have the following advantages:
- They lead to judgements that are likely to be more valid than judgements made by other means. This is the most important advantage of psychometric assessment.
- They are likely to lead to considerable cost-benefits in the long term. Whether it is for selection of new staff or development of existing staff, the expenses involved in psychometric assessment are minimal when compared with the costs of high-turn over, under-performance or misemployment of staff.

Disadvantages of Psychometric Tests:
The following are significant dangers associated with psychometric testing:
- In many cases, these tests and questionnaires have been put together by people with no background in psychometrics and they have very little actual utility and value for the purposes for which they are marketed.
- Another important danger with psychometric testing is the use of personality questionnaires to try to assess a person's ability or skill in a particular area. For example, if a person scores highly on a personality dimension called 'Leadership', this does not mean that he or she will actually possess a high level of leadership skill.

Different types of Psychometric Tests:
1. Tests of ability:
This category covers what psychologists sometimes refer to as 'tests of maximum performance'. Such tests ask a person to do his or her best on a task and their performance is judged in terms of how well they have done. Ability tests are sometimes subdivided in to tests of achievement and tests of aptitude.
The types of ability assessed in employment settings include:
- general mental abilities such as verbal reasoning, numerical reasoning and abstract reasoning
- more specific job-related abilities such as clerical aptitude, mechanical aptitude and spatial reasoning.
Most ability tests provide just a single score, indicating how the person has performed on the ability in question in comparison with people who have taken the test previously.
2. Personality Questionnaires:
Personality questionnaires differ from ability tests in that there are usually no right or wrong answers to the questions. Rather, the purpose of the questionnaire is to assess the person's typical way of behaving, thinking, feeling or perceiving in particular situations.
An important difference between ability tests and personality tests is that considerably more skill and judgement is necessary to interpret the results of the latter. This is the point at which the 'science' ends and the judgement begins.
3. Tests of interests, motivation and attitudes:
Although not clearly distinguishable from personality tests, there is another group of tests which attempt to assess other more specific aspects of a person's style and approach to life.
Motivations questionnaires attempt to assess what types of motivation are most significant to an individual (e.g. achievement, security, affiliation with others and so on) and these questionnaires are also useful in career planning and employment counselling.

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