Notes for Applicants

Thank you for your interest in gaining employment at South Essex College. In order to apply for a vacancy, all applicants are expected to complete this ‘Application for Employment’ form. Please be aware that we do not accept CVs in place of the Application Form. If your Application Form is incomplete, it will be returned to you. When completing this form please follow the guidelines below:

Please complete the form in BLACK or BLUE ink and return to: Human Resources Team, South Essex College, Southend Campus, Luker Road, Southend-on-Sea, Essex SS1 1ND.

1. Post Applied For – Enter the title of the post you wish to apply for, indicate which College site the post is based at and advise us where you saw the post advertised.

2. Employment History – You are required to provide details of your current and previous employers, advising on their names and addresses, dates of employment, a brief description of the main responsibilities and duties undertaken (including details of any duties undertaken that are a requirement for this vacancy) and your reason for leaving their employment, if applicable. You are required to provide a complete employment history and therefore, you must include details of all gaps in employment too. If you would like to continue with any paid or unpaid work (if appointed) please give details of the additional work that you wish to continue to pursue.

3. Educational History – You are required to provide details of your education starting with your secondary school (or equivalent). You should provide the dates you attended the course, the names and addresses of the educational institutions you attended, the titles of the qualifications and the results achieved. For degrees, please indicate the award given (i.e. 2:1). Please ensure you provide details of qualifications already achieved in the Educational History table and give details of any qualifications you are currently studying in the box provided underneath.

For those applying for a position that involves teaching, you will be required to hold or study for a Diploma in Teaching in the Life-Long Learning Sector (DTLLS)/PGCE/Cert.Ed., please find an information sheet enclosed.

4. Membership of Institute of Learning (IfL) – You are required to provide your IfL membership details, including level, if you are applying for a position that involves teaching. Since April 2008, it is has been a requirement for the FE sector that all

teaching staff are registered with the IfL as their professional body. If you are not currently registered then please indicate your commitment to register prior to starting employment:

5. References - Please note you must provide contact details for two referees. All employment referees should be from the Head of the Establishment and from your current and most recent posts. Appropriate references from academic institutions will be acceptable. Please note that character references and references from friends/acquaintances are not acceptable. If you have previously worked with children/young people/vulnerable adults, and these are not included in your two most recent referees, you are required to provide additional referees for these work places.

6. Health – You are required to provide the number of days that you have been ill or injured over the past 2 years and provide a brief description of the condition(s). All short-listed candidates are required to complete a medical questionnaire, and if appointed to the position, this is forwarded for medical assessment to our Occupational Health Consultancy Service provider for assessment of your suitability for the role. If you have any current or previous medical conditions that require reasonable adjustments to the role, due consideration will be given to assess the feasibility of the changes required and every effort will be made to implement the adjustments.

7. Disclosure of Criminal Convictions – Under the provision of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (exemption) order 1975, you are required to disclose any current criminal convictions, cautions, bind-overs, warnings or reprimands you have. In addition, all applicants for posts with regular contact with learners are also required to disclose any criminal convictions, cautions, bind-overs, warnings or reprimands that are ‘spent’ when applying for the post (see Role and Person Specification to identify whether the post you are applying for includes regular contact with learners). In both instances, you are required to provide details of the convictions, cautions, bind-overs, warnings or reprimands on a separate sheet of paper and attach them to your application for employment. If you do have a current or spent criminal record, by disclosing the conviction or caution you will not necessarily be preventing yourself from being appointed. The College will carefully undertake a risk assessment to ascertain your suitability to the role. If appointed, and it came to light that you had failed to disclose such information, you may be dismissed or be subject to disciplinary action. All offers of employment made to new members of staff with regular contact with learners will be subject to an enhanced CRB check and you will be required to apply for an enhanced Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) disclosure through the College. If you were found to have a criminal record that would indicate you are unsuitable for employment at the College, your offer of employment may be withdrawn.

8. Details in Support of Application – In order to fully complete your application for employment, you are expected to provide information in support of your application. This provides you with an opportunity to write in more detail about your skills and abilities and how they relate to the Person and Role Specification for the post advertised. Please use the space provided on the application form to describe your relevant skills, experience and qualities and how they match to the role. If you require more space than the form provides, please attach separate sheet(s) of paper. CVs will not be accepted in place of supporting details. If you do not provide supporting details, your application will be considered incomplete and returned to you.

9. Positive About Disabled People - South Essex College has achieved the two ticks Positive About Disabled People award. We ensure that all candidates with a disability who meet the essential criteria in the Role Specification are guaranteed an invitation to the recruitment event. You are asked to indicate whether or not you have a disability. This information will be used to monitor all applicants’ success through the recruitment process and will be treated as confidential.

10. Declaration – Please ensure that you read the declaration and sign and date the application form. By doing so, you are stating that the information you have provided is true, and that any false information or failure to disclose criminal convictions, cautions, bind-overs, warnings or reprimands when applying for a post with regular contact with learners may result in withdrawal of the offer of employment. You are also giving your consent for the information provided to be processed under the terms of the Data Protection Act 1998.

11. Monitoring Form - South Essex College is committed to promoting equality and diversity and monitors all applicants’ success through the recruitment process. We ensure that all recruitment and selection processes are carried out according to objective, job related criteria and make appointments based on the qualifications, skills and experience of the applicant. Therefore, in order to assess the effectiveness of this policy, all applicants are requested to provide information on their age, ethnicity and gender, this information will be treated as confidential and used solely for monitoring purposes. You are asked to provide your name and contact details on the monitoring form to ensure that your age, ethnicity and gender are not evident to the short-listing panel, as they do not have access to monitoring forms. You are asked to provide the name of and your relationship to any current members of staff and/or Members of the Corporation if relevant, to ensure they are not involved in the recruitment process for the position.

12. Recruitment Checks – If you are invited to attend a recruitment event you will be expected to bring documentation with you to enable us to verify your citizenship, please find information on the citizenship check below. We will need to verify and photocopy the original qualification certificates of all the qualifications you have cited on the application for employment form. You will also be sent and asked to complete a medical questionnaire to bring with you to the recruitment event or interview that we will send to our Occupational Health Consultancy Service providers, if appointed, or destroyed if not. If you are invited to a recruitment event for a role with regular contact with learners you will be asked to bring identification documents with you and, if appointed, you will be required to complete an enhanced CRB Disclosure Application Form. Please find information on the CRB Disclosure check below.

Citizenship check – Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006

Under the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006, which came into force on 29th February 2008, employers are criminally liable for employing a person who does not have the right to work in this country. Employers are required to check the person’s status prior to starting work through sight of one of the following documents:

  • A document issued by a previous employer, the Inland Revenue or another state agency which states the national insurance number of the person named (temporary NI numbers are not acceptable).
  • A passport describing the holder as a British Citizen or as having the right of abode in, or an entitlement to re-admission to, the UK.
  • A certificate of registration or naturalisation as a British Citizen.
  • A passport or national identity card issued by a state that is a party to the European Economic Area agreement, which describes the holder as a national of that state.
  • A letter issued by the Home Office indicating the person named in it is a British Citizen or has permission to take employment.
  • A work permit or other approval to take employment from the Department for Education and Employment, or, in Northern Ireland, the Training and Employment Agency.

If you do not currently have the right to work in the UK, please give details in your supporting statement and check whether you fulfil the criteria for a work visa under the UK’s new points-based system that came into effect from 29th February 2008.

Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) Disclosure of Criminal Records Check If you are invited to a recruitment event/interview for a role with regular contact with learners, you will be required to bring with you documentation for a CRB Disclosure check in order that we can verify your identity and present address. On appointment, this will enable us to ensure the documents for verification are ready for the CRB Disclosure form being completed. The identity and address verification original documents are listed below:

Group 1 - As many of the following as possible:

  • Valid Passport any nationality
  • Driving Licence (either photocard or paper)
  • Original UK Birth Certificate (issued
  • within 12 months of the date of birth)
  • Valid photo identity card (EU countries only)
  • UK Firearms Licence

Group 2 - At least 2 of the following identifying documents or 5 if none provided from Group 1:

  • Marriage certificate
  • Non – original UK birth certificate (issued after 12 months of date of birth))  P45/P60 Statement **
  • Bank or building society statement *
  • Utility bill – electricity, gas, water, telephone – inc. mobile phone contract/bill
  • *
  • TV licence **
  • Credit Card statement *
  • Store card statement *
  • Mortgage
  • statement **
  • Insurance certificate **
  • Certificate of British nationality
  • British work permit/visa **
  • A document from UK Central/Local Government/Government Agency/Local Authority giving entitlement * for example, from the Benefits Agency, the Employment Service or the Inland Revenue
  • Financial statement (e.g. pension, endowment, ISA)
  • **
  • Valid vehicle registration document
  • Mail order catalogue statement *
  • Court Claim Form documentation issued by Court Services **
  • UK NHS card
  • Addressed payslip
  • * National Insurance number card
  • Exam certificate (e.g. GCSE, NVQ)
  • Benefit
  • Book - Child Allowance or Pension **
  • Connexions card  Council Tax Statement **

* Documentation should be less than 3 months old ** Issued within past 12 months

If you have any queries please do not hesitate to contact the Human Resources Team on 01702 220461 or email us at hrd@southend.ac.uk