Firefighter Selection Process

Behavioural Styles Questionnaire (BSQ) (Online)

Once you’ve completed this initial stage, you will be required to complete an online Behavioural Styles Questionnaire (BSQ). 

The BSQ explores your preferred behaviours in a working environment. If you are successful through the BSQ, you will be invited to undertake the online Situational Judgement Test (SJT).

Situational Judgement Test (SJT) (Online)

The Situational Judgement Test (SJT) measures your judgement and decision making skills in situations typical in the Fire and Rescue Service.  

You don’t need any prior knowledge of the Fire Service to complete the BSQ or SJT – they are designed to assess your suitability to the role of a firefighter. 

There is no preparation you can undertake for these tests, you should just answer each question honestly and mark the answer that feels right to you. 

The BSQ and SJT will help us assess your suitability for the role of a firefighter by looking at how you answer questions relating to your behaviour preferences. 

As such, you are strongly urged to complete the tests on your own, without referring to anyone else for help or guidance. 

Aptitude tests online – verbal, numerical and mechanical reasoning (Online)

If you successfully complete the SJT, you will be invited to undertake three aptitude tests online – verbal, numerical and mechanical reasoning.

We have created practice tests for each aptitude test so you can have a try before completing the official tests.  

Verbal: 

https://frs.tptests.com/candidate/practice?accesskey=1445204

Numerical:

https://frs.tptests.com/candidate/practice?accesskey=321455714 

Mechanical:

https://frs.tptests.com/candidate/practice?accesskey=31524637

Bleep Test

If you successfully complete the online aptitude tests, you will then be invited to a bleep test (venue to be confirmed). 

You will be required to achieve level 8.8 (equivalent of 42 VO2 Max) in order to pass this stage of the process. 

A bleep test is a timed aerobic fitness test where you run between two points with the interval between “bleeps” decreasing so you have to speed up.

Physical Testing

The next stage of the recruitment process is physical testing. 

Find out further information and videos on the physical tests here.  

Assessment Centre

Applicants successfully completing the physical tests will then be invited to an assessment centre. 

We are still designing the format of the assessment centre, so further information will become available in due course, but it will comprise of an interview and validation of the online aptitude tests. 

Throughout the recruitment process, we’ll be assessing candidates against the role requirements, together with our organisational values and behavioural framework. 

Preparing for interview

Follow the link and instructions below to a short online e-learning module with advice on how to prepare for an interview. This is not specific to interviews at our Service and we may use a variety of approaches for different roles. We hope that this is useful so you can think about possible questions or tasks you may face.

• Click on this link and it will take you to a log-in page. 
    
• Click on “Support & Login Options”    
    
• Click on “Log in as a guest” this will take you directly to the course page

• Click on the "Preparing to be Interviewed" eLearning module link.  

• Click on Enter. (You may get a message about Pop-ups.  Just find the button that allows Pop-up, usually top right-hand of the screen somewhere.) 

Pre-employment phase

Candidates who successfully complete the assessment centre will enter our pre-employment phase, which includes medical, further fitness test, references and Disclosure and Barring Scheme check. 

However, to ensure we capture the most up-to-date information on all our applicants, it is likely that only the highest performing applicants from the assessment centre will be invited through to this phase. 

The remaining successful applicants will be invited through this stage closer to the date of the initial firefighter training they will undertake.