National Sift and Online Assessment Centre

All candidates will undertake the new two-stage online assessment process. The first stage is referred to as the ‘National Sift’ and comprises a Situational Judgement Test (SJT) and a Behavioural Styles Questionnaire (BSQ). Candidates who successfully pass the ‘National Sift’ will then be Eligibility-checked by the Recruitment team. Candidates who pass Eligibility will progress to the Online Assessment Centre (OAC), made up of an online interview, a written assessment and briefing exercise.

The online assessment process

• Stage 1 – National Sift The ‘National Sift’ comprises of two elements. First a Situational Judgement Test (SJT) followed by a Behavioural Styles Questionnaire (BSQ). Find out more in the National Sift document. Candidates who successfully pass the ‘National Sift’ will then be eligibility checked by the Recruitment team.
• Stage 2 – Interview, Written Assessment and Briefing Exercise  Competency Based Interview: You will be asked a series of questions about how you have dealt with specific situations in the past. This is your opportunity to provide some examples of the key competencies and values that are important for police constables. You can use examples from both your work and your personal life.
• Written assessment and briefing exercise
  • Written assessment: In this exercise, you will assume the role of a police constable and will have to complete an urgent written task for your line manager. You will receive four items of information to help you with this task.
  •  Briefing exercise: In this exercise, you will assume the role of a police constable and will have responsibility for dealing with some issues presented to you. You will be tasked with providing a response to a number of questions in relation to this issue. You will be provided with preparation materials to consider your answer.

Please note that you will receive and be able to take the written assessment and briefing exercises separately.

Required Technology

You can complete the exercises on any internet-enabled device with a camera (laptop, tablet or phone), but to ensure full compatibility with the online platform, the following should be set up.

Your operating system should be Windows 7 (or higher) or Mac OS 11.0 (or higher).

Your Apple iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch should have iOS 8.0 or later installed. Your Android device should have compatibility 4.1 (or higher). Your browser should be the latest version of Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome.  Please do not use Internet Explorer or Safari, as these browsers are not supported for the Online Assessments. A strong internet connection via WiFi – if you have a weak connection, connect via an Ethernet cable.

Further Information

For further information on the recruitment process, please refer to the College of Policing’s online assessment candidate FAQ or contact TVP’s Police Officer Recruitment Team directly: assessmentcentre@thamesvalley.police.uk

How to apply

Please refer to the relevant entry route dropdown on the Police Officer page.