In answer to the South Wales assessments due in Jan 2012 we will be running a course at the St.Mellons hotel in Cardiff on Dec 3rd. We always get a good turnout for the welsh forces. Last time we were there, we had about forty or fifty people who we trained in the end. I imagine we will do the same this time around. I understand that this time the job will be inviting many internal people. yet again, this is another example of in an environment where everyone is from a similar background, how do you differentiate yourself? Being a PCSO or specila will not be any advantage, as everyone else at the assessment centre will be too.

In Lancashire last month, we trained up about thirty people, and would expect that of those, at least 25 pass. That may be even more however this time around, as one needs to be in mind that the people invited to assessment tend to be of a higher quality than normal by definition of the fact they are already in the job.

We have put a course on in Hatfield in order to cater for the Surrey assessments next month(May). The course will be in our normal Hatfield venue at the Oak Hotel, on Roehyde Way, next to the University. We have already started to take bookings for this. Whether you come with us or not, make sure you prepare well. Compettion will be fierce for these places, and this chance will not come around again for a long time!

We have had a few people this week asking us whether our courses are simply telling people what the official police open evenings do. Notts police for example are running open evenings. Whilst we would encourage going to one of these to show willing, they are pretty worthless. The suggestion our courses are just like the official police ones is so far from the truth that we actually cover it under the “Five reasons not to use us” button on the Talking Blues website. However, I have reproduced the text below:

“My force recruitment team/a bobby I know has told me I do not need to do a private course. A private company will not tell me any more than I would find out on the force recruitment evening I did when I got my application form. They are just charging me for something I can find out for free.”

If it is a police  recruiting officer telling you not to bother with us, consider this. The recruiters do not want prepped up candidates, they want to see you as you are. Prepped up candidates mean more people pass, which makes the assessors job harder. It is not in the recruiter’s interest for you to do a course as there is a much greater chance of you passing, and they will not care about your interest.

Interestingly though, police recruiters sometimes say that you will get told the same information at a free force recruitment seminar than you will at one of our courses. We always smile at this. To begin with, we guarantee that the person saying it will not have been on a Talking Blues course, so how do they know this to be true? We are also unaware of any police force using a specially written 160 page manual like ours. But think about this logically.

The job of the police recruitment department is to select the best candidates, NOT to help YOU as an individual pass. If the recruiters hold an open evening, then EVERYONE gets the same information (and it is usually generic rubbish anyway.) This means that by definition, YOU are no better off then everyone else. Talking Blues job is to make YOU the best candidate. As a commercial organisation, Talking Blues stands or falls by its ability to develop YOU so YOU PASS.

The average police recruitment evening will have at least  fifty people there and last 2 hours. There will be almost NO interaction between YOU and the recruiters. Our police recruitment courses are designed to develop YOU as an individual, and for example during the role play session, will focus on YOU doing individual role-plays, with feedback specific to YOU. Our courses therefore have a trainer ratio on average of 1:7, and last ten hours. We have our money back on the day guarantee if you are not happy that you have benefited. It is nonsense for police recruiters to say that a recruitment open evening is the same as our course. As regards the fact we charge for helping you, the same argument could be applied to driving instructors. We have knowledge that you desire in order to gain a great career, and meeting that need is our business. Search the web for our company and you will see how well we meet that need.

Bottom line: of course our course is totally different from open evenings. Open evenings simply inform EVERYONE what the process involves. So there is no advataneg to be gained from them as an individual, as everyone is told what you are. Our professionally written course takes YOU as an individual and explains to you what YOU need to pass. The two things are categorically not the same!

Just a quick note that the venues for our poliuce recruitment courses are booked now, and due to space limitations at each there are only five places left for Cardiff, and six for Newcastle. We still have plenty of room at Bristol for those thinking of that venue.

Here is another thank you we had today.

I attended your seminar in Leeds at the Holiday Inn recently. There I asked you how you determined the number of your students that were successful at the assessment centre.  I am pleased to let you know that I passed my assessment centre for XX Constabulary with a pass mark of 74%! Preparation and attendance of your seminar no doubt played a massive part in this achievement and I would like to thank you once again.

Regards,”