How to apply

Find a job and apply online

Start by finding a suitable vacancy.

You’ll need your National Insurance number to apply. The application is very quick and should only take you about 10 minutes.

You’ll be asked some eligibility questions, such as nationality and your right to work in the UK, then you’ll need to enter some personal details. You can then submit your application.

Tell us if you have a disability when you apply and we can offer reasonable adjustments to help with the online test and interview. Find out about reasonable adjustments.

Online test

When you apply, you may be invited to complete a short online test. The job advert you are applying to will confirm if this is the case and you’ll get an email with detailed instructions on how to take the test.

If you don’t need to complete an online test, you will be invited to an interview if your online application meets the eligibility criteria for the role.

About the online test
This is a behaviour-based assessment to see if you have the right natural strengths and behaviours to become an OSG.

You’ll complete some mini tasks that are designed to show your natural behavioural preferences, for example, how you make decisions.

The tasks are designed to observe the behaviours most important for the OSG role.

The test will take around 40 minutes to complete, but there’s no time limit.

You do not need to be a computer gamer to do well on this test. We’re just looking for your natural ability to succeed in the role.

Before you take the test, you’ll have the opportunity to practise. We’ll send you information and a link to access the practice test and the real test after you apply.

If you pass stage 1 of the application process, we’ll invite you to an interview.

Interview

If you pass the test, we’ll invite you to an interview.

During your interview we’ll ask you a series of questions which will help us assess whether you have the required strengths and behaviours to become an OSG.

We will also assess your ability to speak and understand English, which is a government requirement in public-facing roles such as this where you will be engaging with visitors and sometimes prisoners. If spoken English is something you struggle with, you could try having a conversation with others and asking for feedback before your interview.

About your interview if you applied before 3 November 2023

We’ll use the Civil Service Success Profiles framework (GOV.UK, opens in a new tab) during your interview. This will assess the following:

Communicating and influencing – that you can communicate clearly, concisely and with confidence. You can listen to others and adapt your communication style to the situation and audience.

Working together – that you’re a team player who develops good working relationships. You are a positive and supporting team member

Delivering at pace – that you’re a quick thinker, are highly resilient and quickly adapt to change. You are self-motivated and confident and have determination and drive to solve problems and achieve results.

Managing a quality service – that you take pride in yourself and your work and demonstrate a strong work ethic. You manage your own time, quickly adapting to changing circumstances, whilst adhering to processes and rules.

We’ll ask you a combination of questions:

• behaviour-based questions, to explore the actions and activities you have taken in previous roles or life experiences
• strengths-based questions, to focus on what motivates and energises you

You do not need to have worked in a prison before to do well – you can use examples from your personal and professional experiences.

Interview process from 3 November 2023

We’ll ask you a combination of questions:

• behaviour-based questions, to explore the actions and activities you have taken in previous roles or life experiences
• strengths-based questions, to focus on what you do well and what motivates and energises you

Your interview will last about 30 minutes.

Preparing for your interview

You do not need to have worked in a prison before to do well – when answering questions, you can use examples from your personal life, educational, or professional experiences. Simply focus on a specific example and go into as much detail as possible.

Behaviour-based questions: Behaviours are the actions and activities that people do which make them effective in a job. We’ll use the Civil Service Success Profiles framework (GOV.UK, opens in a new tab) to assess the following behaviours.

• Communicating and influencing: You have excellent interpersonal skills, communicating clearly and respectfully, showing good listening skills. You collaborate with others and challenge and influence others with confidence.

• Managing a quality service: You demonstrate a strong work ethic and take personal responsibility for your actions. You manage your own time, quickly adapting to changing circumstances and assessing risks, whilst adhering to processes and rules.

Familiarise yourself with the behaviours you will be asked to demonstrate and think about the most relevant and strongest examples you can give on the day.

Take the time to plan the structure of your responses. Here’s a standard approach you can use:

• Situation – describe the situation you had to deal with
• Task – explain the task you needed to complete
• Action – outline the actions you took to complete the task
• Result – confirm what happened as a result of your action and what you learnt from the experience

Once the assessor has asked you a behaviour question, you will be given time to think about how you want to respond. This is so you can think of your most relevant and best example for each question without the pressure of needing to answer straight away.

You can bring notes into your interview to refer to when responding to the behaviour-based questions. However, these should only be used as prompts for your examples.

Strengths-based questions: Strengths are the things we do regularly, we do well, and that motivate us.

Before your interview, take some time to consider why you would like to become an operational support grade and think about the personal strengths you could bring to the role. You might find it helpful to ask family or friends what they think your strengths are.

These questions you’ll be asked are designed to assess your natural preferences. They are designed to be as clear as possible and can be interpreted exactly as they are said, there are no hidden meanings.

Here are a few examples of strengths-based questions. You will be asked different questions in your interview.

• Do you think it’s important to be able to explain things so that others can understand? Why is that?
• Imagine you have several urgent tasks on your to-do list for tomorrow. How would you plan your day?

You will be assessed on 3 strengths and asked up to 2 questions on each.

You can read more about strengths-based questions here (opens in new tab).

 

If you’re successful at interview and a vacancy is available immediately, we will start your pre-employment checks. These include security, identity and past employment checks.

This can take on average 25 working days (it may be longer if you’re applying to a prison that requires a higher level of security check).

If a position is not available, you’ll be put on a merit list. When there’s a vacancy for you, we’ll let you know and begin your pre-employment checks.

Once you have received your provisional offer and passed your pre-employment checks, we’ll email you to discuss when you can start your OSG role.