It is important that you complete the sections as fully and as thoroughly as possible. The sections requiring completion are:
When you are happy you have completed each section, you can press Submit to send your application.
When you first start the application, there may be a couple of mandatory ‘Yes or No’, questions. These questions are used to ensure that candidates have any key qualifications or experience for the role in order to proceed with the application.
It is important that you spend time completing this section, covering your employment history. For each role you should provide a brief description of duties, in no more than 200 words. Where possible you should focus on the tasks and skills which most closely match to the role you are applying for. You will also be asked for your reason for leaving each of your previous roles and your notice period of your current role. If you have had gaps in your employment history, for example, taking a career break, please explain this in the box provided. We understand that people chose different career paths for a variety of reasons and give full consideration to applicants that wish to work flexibly and those who have taken a career break.
In this section, you provide details of your educational qualifications from your time at school, college, or university, as applicable. You will need to enter the details of your qualification type (i.e. GCSEs/O-Levels/CSE/A-Level/BTECs etc), subjects, grade or result and date of award.
If you have completed any Professional Development or Training Courses, then you can enter these is this section and if you are a member of any Professional bodies, please enter these details here.
For some of our roles, the Job Description may require a qualification in a certain area, for example Lifeguards are required to hold a Lifeguarding NVQ/NPLQ Level 2 qualification and Early Years Centre Practitioners require a NNEB / NVQ Equivalent Level 3 in Childcare & Education.
It is important that you enter your qualification details in the Education and Professional Development section if one is specifically required for the role.
To aid in shortlisting, our applications usually require you to complete Supporting Statements. These are questions designed to provide you with an opportunity to demonstrate how your qualifications, experience and training are relevant to the post for which you are applying.
When writing your statement, it is important to give examples of when you have dealt with a situation, explaining thoroughly any steps you took or any skills you used. If there is a question in the application relating to specific skills e.g. if you are applying for a customer facing role, then there might be a question around your experience in customer service it is important that your example demonstrates the skill in question. A useful structure for your answer is to give a relevant example, describe any steps you took, any challenges you faced and what you learned from the experience. It’s also worth noting that if you don’t have an example from work, you could refer to experience gained from extracurricular activities or volunteering that are relevant.
If you don’t have an example relevant to the situation, please provide an answer which highlights what you would do or what you believe would be important in each situation. Remember, it is good practice to use a different example for each question.
You will usually be allocated between 300 and 500 words to answer each supporting statement. You don’t need to reach the word limit stated, but your response does need to fully answer the question being asked. These Supporting Statements are used to assess candidates against the essential criteria required to complete the role, therefore it is crucial that you complete these to the best of your ability. If answers are too short or do not cover the key points, you will not be shortlisted and proceed to the next stage of the process.
This screen allows you to provide a short cover letter and upload your CV (Curriculum Vitae) to the application if you wish. Cover letters should include your reasons for applying and a brief summary of how your skills and experience make you a good candidate for the role. The cover letter does not need to be very long, and there is a maximum word limit of 500 words. For more information on how to write a cover letter, please click here: How To Write a Cover Letter
You can upload your CV to you application, but this is not a requirement. All your education and employment history should have all been included on the previous pages. We are unable to proceed with an application where the candidate only includes the CV and does not fully complete the education and employment sections of the application form, unless the role specifically requires/allows this. Please click here for more information on how to write a CV: How to Write a CV
Our roles require a minimum of two referees, one should be from your most recent employer. Ideally you should provide a work email address for your referee, but if you don’t have that, you can provide a telephone number. You can check a box if you don’t wish for your referee to be contacted before you are offered a role. If you don’t have a previous employment history, please provide referee details from another source, for example a Teacher, Lecturer, or leader of an organisation you have been involved with, such as a charity or volunteering organisation.