As if to prove what I am always saying, the new police assessment exercises that came in on Nov 1st 2009 and will run until the last day of April 2010 are again biased heavily towards dealing with diversity issues. I was discussing this with a contact who is involved in recruitment in Cheshire. Whilst it is arguably as to what extent ones ability to be a good police officer is tested, there is a obvious run on diversity issues. In three of the four role plays, there are elementsof either sexuality or race issues to be dealt with. And yet oddly enough, the two new written exercises deal with issues that could have been written to give existing specials and CSO’s an unfair advantage in the process. This is because they deal with such things as disorder and operational tactics that any police trained candidate would have  a good head start on. The interview questions are okay as far as it goes.

The morla of the story is to clearly understand how to deal with diversity. If you do not know how to challenge effectively, the way the police want you to, as opposed to the way you think it should be done, you will be dead. And ironically, this will catch out many specials and CSO’s who would normally have been expected to go through. The police culture is in some ways quite bullying, if you offend the establishment! Where existing specials and CSO’s go wrong is that they know that the senior force management will brush off uncomfortable truths regarding issues, and bury them. So, in assessment, they often try to do the same, and are failed by the same people who in a few months time, had they been successful, would have been telling them to bend the rules over detections or response figures!

The new police assessment exercises would suit diversity advisers better than police officers, but nevertheless, to pass, you need to understand all about diversity, the police way!

We have of course altered the emphasis of our course to reflect this new shift in the police assessment exercises.

Found out that the Northumbria police assessmenst are the first week in january today, so have moved the course we had planned for January forward to acommodate this. Alreday had a fair few bookings for it, so if you want to attend, please book as soon as. We normally have good group numbers in Newcastle, and they normally as a force have a good few people passing. Like quite  afew forces, if this happens this time, you could well find like Gwent or Avon and Somerset that they will just take the highest scores.

Linked in with that, I had a conversation with a PCSO from Gwent a few weeks ago, who was confident that he did not need a course like ours as his background as a CSO would be all he needed. I pointed out that if that were the case, he ought to consider two key points.

1. If that were true, then why did he know loads of cso’s who had tried and failed before to get in (and the same goes of course for Special Constables). Secondly, if the police background was such a huge help, then all the other CSO/Specials would also have the same advantage, and the force could not have enough vacancies to possibly fit them all in.

he didn’t believe me, but after another call this week assures me he will be coming on a course for his next application having failed!

had he come with us, he would probably have been in by now!

Regards

John

reading this about one students visit to his police assessment story, i felt it worth while posting this. had a great course yesterdy In liverpool as well, although we had a cracking discussion about ethics in policing, which I will tell you about soon. Switched venue to the jurys inn at the Liverpool Kings Dock, which was a good venue to.

recieved this week:

”

Hi John & Co,

I just wanted to thank you for the course last month. After the course I felt a hundred times more confident about the Assessment Centre than I had done before. The training was absolutely brilliant. Both trainers were very knowledgeable, approachable and friendly.

I went to the A/C and I have never felt so nervous in my life. We started off with the role plays, however after doing the first one I felt I did so well that the fear just vanished and I felt confident about the rest of the day, in fact you could even say that I enjoyed it!

I received my results last week and was so happy to read that I’d passed! I scored 75% in Respect for Race and Diversity, 100% in Oral Communication, 100% in Written Communication and 66% Overall. I scored mostly A’s and B’s, a few C’s and D’s over the entire day!

Your course is invaluable and you should charge more for it! Without it I honestly do not feel that I could have passed the A/C. If ever anybody asks how they can prepare for the A/C (and the Application form, where I used your checking service) I will always tell them to do the TalkingBlues course.”

Thank you very much.

All recieved this week:

Hey John!!!

Dont know if you remember me but I attended your course in xx on 4th July 09.
I just want to let you know that I received my big brown envelope today! I was dreading opening it but I passed with 60%!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I just want to say a big big big thank you !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I could not have done it without your course! Your material was brilliant and you were a brilliant teacher! I am so happy and Im going out to celebrate with my friends now.
Needs to start revising for my Interview now hehe!
Thank you so much again!

I would like to say a very big thank you for the help and advice that I received on 5th July in Kent.” I was dreading the police assessment role play exercises before I went on the Talking Blues course, but enjoyed doing them at my assessment centre after being taught how to approach them, and not to fear them. I managed to keep the conversation going in all of them for the full 5 minutes, and had to be cut short, and also the same for the interview questions!Got my results through yesterday and scored 64% overall, with 100% for oral communication.Many thanks, especially to Graham, don’t think I would of passed without your excellent help.

Hi,
I took the talking blues course on June 28th at Stafford, just to let you know I passed the police assesment and have my fitness test and would like to say thank you for the help. I will definately recommend this course to friends.
Once again Thank You

Hi,
I just wanted to thank you for all the help you gave me back in June (26th/ Hatfield) for my police assessment day preparation, I got my results yesterday and passed with 62% so am looking forward to my day 2 now!

Always makes us feel good, and we reckon that if we get stopped for speeding, at least 20% of the uniform officers in the country should know us by now!

I am often asked what the police think of assessment centre preparation such as we provide. Well, as far as the police are concerned, I promise you they would much prefer every candidate to turn up at the assessment centre with an equal level of prior knowledge of the assessment process and the exercises it contains. Ideally this knowledge would be zero. Their argument is that this gives each candidate an equal chance of passing. Consequently, it would be fair to say that the police have no interest whatsoever in assisting privately run preparation training courses.

The official police line therefore is that the assessment centre is merely testing your potential to be a police officer. There is a definite suggestion from the service that the best way to prepare for this process is to simply be yourself. So, they argue preparation cannot help.

As with many things to do with police policies and aims, the reality of life is completely ignored. Assume there are two candidates attending the assessment centre on the same day. One is a taxi driver, who spends his or her working day driving around a large city in a black cab, having numerous short conversations with people they are unlikely to meet again. They have never found themselves in a situation where they have had to take part in a role play which has been marked and assessed. The second candidate is a sales person for a photocopying company. Any professional sales company will subject its employees to numerous training courses, a fundamental part of which will almost invariably involve role-playing. They will have been taught how to ask questions, they will know about the principles of time management, they will be aware of the principles of finding solutions. It is clearly foolish to suggest that both candidates go into the assessment centre on an equal footing. Consequently, to suggest that every candidate would go to the assessment centre with an equal level of knowledge is simply naïve. Special constables for example are a group of volunteer police officers who are not paid, but clearly have exposure to the police organisation and culture that non police staff will not have. Therefore, they must have an advantage over say, a taxi driver. Having said that, many special constables and members of support staff actually fail the assessments as they treat the role-play scenarios as they know they would in dealt with in reality (i.e. with a typical policing attitude), and subsequently get low marks.

The assessment centre process is supposed to assess a candidate’s ability to be a police officer or PCSO. It basically makes candidates perform a certain number of tasks and whilst doing these tasks, if they display the skills and abilities desired to the required standard, they will pass. On the face of it from the police perspective, every candidate should enter the assessment with an identical level of knowledge. As illustrated above though, there is a huge flaw in this argument. If your life experiences – your background, education, employment or any of the dozens of factors that make you an individual – have made you particularly good at some of the skills being assessed, then clearly you will have an advantage over somebody who has not been fortunate. The notion therefore that all candidates walk through the door at the assessment centre with the same opportunity to pass is clearly flawed. No matter how much the police recruitment system may wish otherwise, preparation is a huge factor in passing.

Many forces actually pay companies to run promotion courses for their officers. It is nonsensical for the police to then argue that training courses for recruits are worthless, when forces are actively providing (and funding) courses covering the same principles for promotion examinations.

Another factor to be considered is that when the police say they are against preparation training courses, what they really mean is that they do not like the average candidate being given preparation and coaching advice for the assessment. Yet the police service is in favour of providing the same support to people who are under-represented in the service. If you are from certain minority groups, chances are you will be offered the opportunity as a candidate to go on some form of assessment centre preparation course run by the police themselves. My view therefore is this – if one group of people are to be allowed the opportunity to prepare in advance, so should any other. It makes a mockery of any police claims that there is no need for preparation. If preparation is of no value, then why do the police themselves run preparation courses for minority candidates?

To summarise, the police as an organisation do not like privately provided assessment centre training (although privately many officers actually recommend us!). You, as the candidate, need to ask why this is the case. The police argument is that preparation training serves no purpose and will not help you to pass. Whilst they will not admit this, the real view is that they want to see you, the candidate, as you really are. They want to see you in the assessment centre, warts and all.

If you fail, it doesn’t really matter to the police, because they have another 60,000 people to assess. It’s the candidate who misses out. Aside from this, it is not in the police interest to have even more successful candidates. It just makes it harder for the police to select people if everyone is good. Also from a political perspective, if the standard of candidate goes up, it makes it even harder for the police to recruit from disadvantaged communities or groups.

None of this of course should really be the candidate’s problem. If you have the ability to prepare, and the determination, then there is no reason why you should not be allowed to do so.

So if the candidate pays to attend a course, or buys a book, and that preparation will do them no good whatsoever, why should the police be bothered? If attending a course is a complete waste of time, why would the police care? If the ideas contained within it, along with the information and techniques were of no value, why would this trouble the police? They have another 60,000 candidates to see. Are they that concerned about you wasting your money? I suspect not.

Even if you’re a cynic, and to be honest I like cynicism in a police officer, the only logical conclusion is that the police service will try to play down the value of such preparation because they do not want you, the candidate, to do it. Ask yourself this final thing. Are they really concerned about you wasting your money on a course or a book? Or, is it more likely they are concerned that having prepared thoroughly you will fly through your assessment centre. Think about it!