Anyone in the prison service who can help with these questions??

BAILEYS6904

Shall we attend the interview for him as well?

silkyuk9

bap98189 wrote: »

What a load of tosh. Answering these sort of questions on application forms is a skill in itself. Most likely the OP's son, being in the army, hasn't ever had to fill in such a form before. Whatever is wrong in asking for some advice?

I was quite upset when i started to read replies as the first one i read was saying 'cheating' and then the second was more or less the same.

I was not asking for others to give me answers to exams all i was asking was help with the questions, as this person said its a skill its self.

The next thing is that my son does not know ive put up a post about this anyway, i was wanting to get the questions 'desiphered' first so i can help with knowledge. The very first reply was more helpul as the question was broken down into sections so i could more or less understand the question (not saying im thick).

Its a shame people jump up and give negative replies and jump to conclusions. We live in a time that jobs are hard to find and some jobs you have to be on the ball filling out applications as you may only get one shot at it.

Also i'm a parent of a young man who is in the army and been out doing active service. I only want the best shot for him so he can come out and do something useful and what he wants. We only have a certain ammount of luck and id rather my son have the luck in civvy street.

silkyuk9

dpassmore wrote: »

You have answered your own question.



And that is the point.

Not only do the questions ensure that the recruiter can determine if the applicant can deal with various situations, but also shows that the person can provide evidence that those experiences can be interpreted correctly and documented.

I do concede that many people will complete an application form for a job application for someone else, but as I alluded to earlier, should the application progress further, if the applicant is not up to scratch, they will be found out - in particular in the prison service where there are many stages of the application process.

The prison service will require their staff to compile reports, be vigilant, have good observational skills, deal with potentially violent people, liaise with and communicate with inmates who will undoubtedly be from varying backgrounds and be imprisoned for all kinds of offences etc. etc.

The application process is vital to ensure the correct type of person who can deal with any event and situation is selected for the role.

The wording and specific requirements on the application form is not accidental - it is like that for a reason.

If someone cannot understand the wording or content of an application form for a particular role, then that person needs no reconsider their application.

I have to agree with you, however, im sure there are lots of young 20 year olds out there who need a little help explaining what things mean rather than them jumping in head first and failing at the first hurdle, as i have perviously said my son does not know about this thread it was really for myself so i can advise if he sadi to me 'dad what do you think this means'? id rather be able to say something positive rather than say'I don't know'

silkyuk9

KiKi wrote: »

Hi OP

Your son does need to think through these. However, as a starting point for you, these are standard 'competency' based questions. You don't need someone specifically from the prison service to help you. What they're looking for is evidence that he
a) is driven
b) can communicate
c) can analyse and solve problems
d) can plan and organise.

All he needs to do is think of a situation - work, home, social - where he's demonstrated this, and he needs to choose ones which really demonstrate his ability. They want to know: what was the situation, what did YOU do in that situation (not what other people did), what was the outcome.

For example, one of mine might be for Q1:
"I recently left my job as I no longer enjoyed what I was doing. Having done a course in creative writing, I decided to pursue writing as a career." (That's the 'what was the situation bit'.)

"I decided to set up my own business. The most difficult part was finding clients, so I contacted previous colleagues who might need writing support in their companies. I proactively produced my own leaflets and dropped them into local businesses in the area. I signed up to various copywriting sites which promote new writers, and sent off lots of examples of my writing to magazines. It was sometimes very demotivating because there's a lot of competition out there, but I knew I had to pursue it in order to create my own career." (That's the 'what I did' bit.)

"I now have a steady stream of clients and am about to be published in some literary magazines." (The outcome.)

That's not a great example - just off the top of my head. But you get the point.

HTH
KiKi

very helpful thanks.

silkyuk9

BAILEYS6904 wrote: »

Shall we attend the interview for him as well?

no but maybe you would like to stand by him when he is out on the line.

DitaBombita

As previous posters said the examples need to be really specific to your son so I cant help really that much - I would suggest he has a look on the prison service website and also the Prison Officers Union website to see current issues (I know there is one about Officer 2's in the place I work) and see what he can relate to.

They are looking at transferable skills and im sure someone in the army would have loads of examples for the situations above, it doesnt need to be linked to offenders, just that he has the capability to utalise things like this.

Im not a prison officer but the big agendas that im aware of at the moment where I work are layered offender management, ADP (Anti Discriminatory practise, there is a `challenge it change it` campaign thing currently) , and reduction in self harm ACCTs. It might well be different in other prisons though.

dickydonkin

silkyuk9 wrote: »

I have to agree with you, however, im sure there are lots of young 20 year olds out there who need a little help explaining what things mean rather than them jumping in head first and failing at the first hurdle, as i have perviously said my son does not know about this thread it was really for myself so i can advise if he sadi to me 'dad what do you think this means'? id rather be able to say something positive rather than say'I don't know'

Very valid point and I was basing my posts on the recruitment process I encountered a couple of years ago. It may be different now, but I suspect the process is similar.

I think the majority of people are attempting to explain that this recruitment process is not a straight forward application followed by an interview.

It is pretty thorough, but what I experienced was certainly not beyond the majority of people.

Certainly tell him to go for it and good luck!

robpw2

silkyuk9 wrote: »

no but maybe you would like to stand by him when he is out on the line.

sorry but i do not think that statement is very fair
the op had a point, The questions are so designed to enable an employer to sort those they want to see and those they do not

I am not saying you cannot help him by explaining the questions better but you must not try to answer them for him because he needs to think for himself , often in interviews they will ask the same questions to try to see if you can think on your feet so he needs

Oldernotwiser

silkyuk9 wrote: »

no but maybe you would like to stand by him when he is out on the line.

I don't think emotional blackmail helps anyone.

knithappens

filling in application forms etc is a skill, I teach in an inner city school, where year 11 and 6th form students do not have aclue how to answer these questions, ti is the same with exams, they are wrtten for a middle class student, some application forms are the same, and all it takes is for me to rephrase the question and the student gets it.

Even I have asked for help when applying for promotion in my work, these types of forms are written in a way that would make anyone aprehensive about answering them, sometimes we just need clarification, and to know we are on the right track.

I know if he is gettign ou tof the mil he will have courses etc to help him do this, but some of them are not so good, and it can be hard for ex service me to find work outside the military, so i understand perfectly why you woudl want to help your son, for me it was my ex husband.

I think he could answer all of the above questiosn with relevant examples from him military career, but if you google there are resources online to help ex service members inanswering questions, some ask you to pay but there are a lot of free ones out there too.

(sorry if there are any mispelt words my kepboard is playing up)