Skip to content Skip to footer
Menu

Application Form – Guidance Notes

Completing the Application Form

Please complete and submit the online Application Form for the role you wish to apply for.

It is essential that you complete the form fully, clearly demonstrating how you meet the Person Specification criteria listed. Other aspects of the Person Specification criteria will be assessed on the day of the interview.

In your answers, we’re looking for real life examples from your own personal experience.

Members of the recruitment panel will consider your answers and the information on your CV, to decide whether you should be shortlisted for an interview.

Curriculum Vitae (CV)

If the post you are applying for also requires a CV, you will be asked to send it to recruitment@ca-ce.org.uk by the application deadline (as confirmed in the job advert and on the Application Form).

Equal Opportunities

Citizens Advice Carlisle and Eden values diversity, promotes equality and challenges discrimination.
We encourage and welcome applications from suitably skilled candidates from all backgrounds.

Disability and Reasonable Adjustments

Please let us know if you require any adjustments to be made to the application process or if there’s any information that you would like us to consider when considering your application.

To request a paper version of the application form, please email business.support@ca-ce.org.uk

If you are selected for interview, we will ask whether you have any access needs or require any reasonable adjustments to be made to the interview/assessment process.

Please be assured that we will be supportive in discussing reasonable adjustments with you at any stage of the recruitment and selection process.

Entitlement to work in the UK

A job offer will be subject to confirmation that you are permitted to work in the UK in accordance with the provisions of the Asylum and Immigration Act 1996. You will be asked to provide evidence of your entitlement to work in the UK if you are successful and an offer of employment is made.

Please note, Citizens Advice Carlisle & Eden does not hold a sponsor licence and cannot issue certificates of sponsorship under the points-based system.

 

Experience, knowledge, skills and abilities

This section of the form allows you to demonstrate how you meet the Person Specification criteria.

Please provide one example for each requirement, being precise about what you did, how you did it and the result of your actions.

No assumptions will be made about your achievements and abilities.

Please provide recent work examples wherever possible. However, examples from other aspects of your life can also be provided e.g. voluntary work, school or college, family life or home responsibilities.

The STAR technique may help you to structure your responses:

  • Situation: Briefly describe the situation and when it took place.
  • Task: Describe the task. What was the problem/objective?
  • Action: Confirm the actions that you took to resolve the problem and achieve your objective.
  • Result: Conclude by confirming the outcome of your actions. What did you achieve?

Please limit your response to each criterion to a maximum of 200 words.

 

Shortlisting

Shortlisted applicants will be invited for an interview, where further aspects of the Person Specification will be assessed.

Some positions may require an additional assessments (e.g. practical test). If this is the case, further details will be provided if you are shortlisted.

 

Criminal convictions

Anyone who applies to work within Citizens Advice Carlisle & Eden will be asked to disclose details of unspent convictions during the recruitment process.

Please note, we are not able to employ anyone with a conviction for a sexual offence against a child or vulnerable adult, regardless of when the offence took place.

All other convictions will be considered on an individual basis and will not necessarily bar you from working Citizens Advice Carlisle & Eden – much will depend on the type of job you have applied for and the background and circumstances of your offence.

Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks are only requested where proportionate and relevant to the post concerned. If the post for which you are applying for requires a DBS check, this will be noted in the application pack.

 

References

All job offers are subject to the receipt of two satisfactory references:

One should be from your current or most recent employer or your tutor if you have just left fulltime education.

The other should be someone who knows you in a work related, voluntary or academic capacity. Both referees should be able to comment on your suitability for the role.

References will only be taken up for successful candidates, following interview.