Had to write this quickly. Had three example forms this week where people had used examples of challenging behaviour that was bullying or discrimnatory (Q1 in the competency application section of the application form) without thinking about what they are saying. All involved situations where the applicant saw a series of actions, e.g. leting a colleague be sexist to a member of staff over several days/weeks, then they went to speak to their colleague, checked they were unhappy, then finally did something about it! THIS IS TOTALLY WRONG! Think about what they are really saying. 1. They saw a series of events they knew were wrong, but did nothing initially. Therefore they are allowing this to carry on. Not good. 2. They are saying that if their mate had not anted them to do anything, they would not have, otherwise why ask them? We want to hear examples where as soon as you notice the behaviour, you challenge it there and then, to set an example to others. Anything else is ducking your responsibiity!

I know that people get fed up of reading testimonials, but you will excuse me if I put in the following. We had a large group booking for the police assessment centre course in one particular area. It was a great result for the people involved, and means that Talking Blues coached around 15% of that forces recruit intake for this year . This is the whole text of the email. I admit, we are blowing our own trumpet, but hey, so what! WELL DONE TO ALL THOSE STUDENTS, YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE!

I have just had my results and have passed scoring 68%. As it looks at the moment, the majority of my group who came on the course have passed, apart from one (possibly two.)
If I am honest, I wasn’t confident coming out from the centre although looking back on it I don’t think I could have passed without attending your course.
I think the only bit of constructive criticism I have would be the size of the slides on the print out could have done with being a bit bigger.
In response to feedback for your website, please feel free to put this on:
The course was professionally run and extremely informative but at the same time laid back, easy to understand and excellent for developing an understanding of what is needed on the centre day. The trainers were friendly, approachable and put information accross in such away that it was fun to learn encompassing real examples of life experiences.
The role-play practicals were a great help and gave a hands on practical experience of what is expected.
It was a very long day however the time flew by and before you knew it, it was the end of the day. I really do not think I would have been successful had I not attended this course. Thanks very much.
Again, thank-you very much, I will be recommending you.

The writer was part of a large group that had booked on together. The same day, another member of the group also wrote in:

John, just a quick message to let you know I got my results this week and passed with 75% overall !I also know that 5 others who attended the course with me in March also passed with good results. I just want to say thank you, I found your course to be extremely beneficial to my preparation and performance, and as a result there were no surprises on the day. To anyone who is not feeling confident after they have come out of the assessment centre, don’t worry, I felt the same, as did everyone else I spoke to. It is difficult to tell if you did good or not. Again, thank you for your assistance and insight.

Following a phone conversation this morning with the BBC, we thought this may be of interest to some of you. Please note that at this stage this is nothing to do with talking Blues, other than we have agreed to put the request to people visiting our site.

BBC Manchester are looking for people who are thinking about, or going through the process of joining the police. We would like to talk for a range of people, from different backgrounds, who represent the current crop of applications. We are looking to follow them through the process for a series of factual programmes to be aired on the BBC. If you are chosen to be filmed, the BBC would be willing to provide specialised training to help you on your way.

If you think you might be interested and would like more info, please e-mail Rick Murray on rick.murray@bbc.co.uk We are particularly interested in hearing from people who you wouldn’t usually associate with the force.

So, if interested, please contact Rick direct and not ourselves, but mention where you saw the notice.

I have had  a few issues this week with the types of example that people are using for both police interviews and indeed the police assessment interview. Two questions that always crop up in one format or another are challenging innappropiate behaviour (on the form) and working as part of a team (on the interview). Candidates pick some really weak examples for these. In terms of challenging  behaviour, we are constantly getting forms where someone has been at a bus stop, some yob has made a racist/sexist/homophobiccomment, and the candidate has told them off, so the offender walks away. This is a very weak example. What you need to do is find some example where there has been a chain of behaviour, you have challenged it immediately it comes to your attention,  you have a long explanation to the offender about why what they are doing is wrong, they eventually see this, and apologise to all concerned. (Make sure you challenge it as soon as you know about it though. Otherwise, if you let it go for a bit, it can be argued you are allowing it to get worse!) If this takes place somewhere like work, all the better, as it is morally harder to challenge your mates, than someone you do not know. Against this background, you may be able to see where the bus stop example falls down.

Second bugbear this week was on the interview question on teamwork. People always want to tell us about when they were in the street/at work etc and someone else got hurt. They then try to say that a group of passersby/staff/friends worked a s a team on the casualty. This is just too superficial, and in reality probably you handed over to the ambulance crew as soon as they got there. We want to see evidence that you ideally volunteered fo a big event, maybe like a charity fair, or a stock take at work. You realised that the task was too big for you alone, so you got  a team involved, who had different skills to you that were also needed. You planned how the task was going to be done, allocating resources by experience and priority. You completed the task on time/budget, and got a thank you letter. Hurrah! Again, against this context, the drunk in the swimming pool will not score highly.

You need to apply this logic to every exercise. Being average when thousands of people are applying for every place just does not do it!

I have had two people this week sending me their own analysis of how they think they have done after leaving the police assessment centre, and asking me basically for a bit of comfort. I never make a comment until they have actually got their marks, and the reason for this is shown in the below exchange. Have a read, and it may make you feel better when you walk out of your assessment. As it is an email exchange, the most recent email is at the top. Any typos were i the original exchange!

Hiya John,
You were right not to do an autopsy as I got my results and I passed!!!!
I only just scraped through with xx% (I think if I had not messed up I would have done a lot better), but who cares, a pass is a pass so I’m happy!!
I know for sure that if I had not attended Talking Blues I would definitely not have passed so thank you so much for everything.

Thanks again John

From: john.mctaggart@talkingblues.co.uk

I never hold autopsies until the body is dead!

Let me know what the results are and we can talk then,

John

To:john.mctaggart@talkingblues.co.uk
Subject: Day 1 today
Hiya John,
I hope you don’t mind me mailing you, I came to the Hatfield briefing on 1st of Feb and I had my day 1 toady. Unfortunately I am pretty sure that I have messed things right up and I wondered if you wouldn’t mind giving me your thoughts on whether you feel I could still pass as I have got a long three week wait for the results.

The morning session went really really well, I did the written reports really well, set out the issues and my proposals and recommendations. The numerical and logical reasoning tests also went really well and I was full of confidence going into the afternoon, sadly then everything went a bit wrong.

I completed three of the roleplays fine, but the one where I had to challenge the security guard for being over the top I feel I did not challenge her enough, She said that ………..and that threw me a bit as it did not say that in the prep, I said I thought she was being a bit harsh on the youths and that I felt it was inappropriate when she said something but that was it. I didn’t realize that I had used so much time questioning and the buzzer sounded before I came to any conclusion. Would I have failed that one??

Unfortunately the interview was even worse, I got so nervous I could hardly speak, In the question about XX I went off on a tangent and I don’t think that I really made much sense. Then I said ‘I’m not really answering the question you’ve asked’, which I probably should have kept to myself!! Also the time ended before I had finished 2 of the questions so I didn’t get the conclusion or what I had learnt in. I also kept going errr, will that go against me because we were being assessed on our oral communication?? My mouth has never been so dry and I had to keep drinking water, I must have looked so nervous and the assessment centre is all about staying cool ubder pressure so I thought that might go against me as well??

I just wondered if these muck-ups will be enough for me to fail, I don’t want to carry on running and doing fitness every day if I’m gonna find out in three weeks that I failed anyway.

I hope you don’t mind me mailing you, it’s just that I thought if anyone will know if that would cause me to fail it will be you.

I do want to say though that Talking Blies was brilliant preperation and I know I would have messed things up a lot more if it wasn’t for you guys so thank you for that.