Corrections Victoria has implemented an online application process to provide candidates with a quick and efficient way of submitting their application. All applications for the role of Prison Officer must be made via this website.
If you would like to access the online application form, please click here. The application process requires you to provide a personal email address – one that you can access outside of business hours and that is personal to you. If you do not currently have a personal email address please go to www.hotmail.com or www.yahoo.com where you can set up a free email account.
Corrections Victoria is an ‘Equal Opportunity Employer' and selects recruits based on relative ability, demonstrated knowledge and skill level. Corrections Victoria aims to ensure that fair, equitable and non-discriminatory consideration is given to all applicants. Women, people from non-English speaking backgrounds and Indigenous Australians are all encouraged to apply.
Please note: If you have previously applied and your application was unsuccessful, we would welcome another application from you. There are specific requirements relating to repeat applications, please read below for these conditions.
If you have previously completed the online application form and your application was unsuccessful once received or after the telephone interview, you are eligible to reapply after 3 months from the date of notification of your application result.
If you were deemed unsuccessful after the Suitability Assessment you are eligible to reapply after 12 months has elapsed from your application result.
If you were deemed unsuccessful after the Assessment Centre only you are eligible to reapply after 6 months has elapsed from your application result.
Please call the HOBAN Projects Team on 1300 304 128 if you would like further clarification on your previous application, or if you have any questions relating to the application form or recruitment and selection process.
Although attendance at an Information Session is optional, we encourage you to attend as it will provide you with an opportunity to hear from experienced prison staff and to ask questions.
The Information Sessions are beneficial for those who have applied (by completing an online application form), are considering applying, or would like to support someone in their decision to apply. You are not obliged to proceed with an application once you have attended an Information Session.
The Information Sessions will include the following topics:
If you would like to know when the next Information Sessions are being held, refer to the Information Sessions page. To register your attendance please phone 1300 304 128 and follow the prompts. We ask that you register your attendance so we can ensure that appropriate facilities are provided.
To be considered for these positions you must hold suitable working rights for Australia. Some of these working rights are:
OR
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You will need to provide original documents at the assessment centre stage of the recruitment process as evidence of your right to work.
Medical Clearance - If your application progresses through the Assessment Centre you will be required to undergo a Pre-Employment Medical Assessment.Applicants who have previously taken a Voluntary Redundancy Package - If you are a previous Victorian Public Service employee and have taken a Voluntary Redundancy Package, you are required to wait a period of three years from the date of your voluntary retrenchment before re-employment with a government agency.
Offence History - If your application progresses through the Assessment Centre you will be required to undertake an Offence History Check which verifies records with Victoria Police (National Police Check) and VicRoads. Results from these checks will be reviewed and considered on a case-by-case basis and in line with the Corrections Victoria Offence History Policy.
Components of your Offence History Check must be clarified with the Prisons Resourcing Team prior to your application progressing to Stage One of the Suitability Assessment. After submitting an online application form you may be required to contact the Prisons Resourcing Team, Department of Justice, on (03) 8684 0015 or (03) 8684 0035 for a confidential discussion to disclose any matters that may appear on an Offence History Check. If you are asked to contact the Prisons Resourcing Team please do so as soon as possible as your application will not progress until you have clarified your suitability.
To apply for the position of Prison Officer you must complete an online application form. The time to complete an application form can vary from individual to individual and may take up to 20 minutes to complete. The online technology enables you:
Once you have ‘submitted’ your application form you are no longer able to make any changes, so make sure you check your application prior to selecting the ‘submit’ button. The application process will also require you to provide a personal email address – one that you can access outside of business hours and that is personal to you. If you do not currently have a personal email address please go to www.hotmail.com or www.yahoo.com where you can set up a free email account. If you would like to access the application form now please click here.
As an applicant you must demonstrate that you satisfy the requirements of the Prison Officer position. You may benefit from some planning time before submitting your application.
Tips:
Please note: While the application form states that your references “must be professional referees from the last five years who you have reported to”, if you have not worked in the last five years, undertaken volunteer work during that period, or operated your own business, exceptions to the above may be made. Please contact a member of the HOBAN Recruitment Projects team on 1300 304 128 if you have any concerns or if you would like to discuss this further. If you currently, or have previously worked within a prison environment or similar, you are also required to provide two additional referees from the prison management or executive team.
HOBAN Recruitment will determine the progress of your application at various stages of the recruitment process in line with Corrections Victoria's selection criteria which looks at your past experience, demonstrated skills, knowledge and ability. Some of the skills, attributes and behaviours that will be assessed throughout the recruitment process include:
Once applications have been submitted, you may be requested to contact the Prisons Resourcing Team, Department of Justice, on (03) 8684 0015 or (03) 8684 0035 for a confidential conversation to disclose any matters that may appear in an offence history check. This includes anything greater than a parking ticket over your lifetime. If you are requested to make this call, we encourage you to do so as soon as possible, this is to ensure your application can be considered through other components of the recruitment process.
Suitability Assessment involves the use of relevant instruments which provide additional information to help HOBAN Recruitment and The Department of Justice/Corrections Victoria better understand you and your abilities in line with these positions. All of the assessments used in this recruitment process have been designed by psychologists and have been thoroughly researched for their use in a variety of settings, including recruitment/occupational settings.
Suitability assessments include both timed and untimed assessments.
The timed assessment will provide you with sample questions to complete prior to undertaking the assessment in order to get you used to the style of questions. For this assessment there are right and wrong answers. The other assessments are all untimed and have no right or wrong answers. They will ask you questions about yourself and your ideas/attitudes toward a range of situations.
No, however should you wish to find out your results you may receive verbal feedback once you have been notified of the outcome of your application. Please note that this feedback will not provide you with the details of your responses to specific questions as this is not permitted by the assessment developers.
For the first stage of the Suitability Assessment process, you will be required to undertake one timed and two untimed assessments. These assessments will be completed online - complete details and procedures will be sent through to the email address supplied on your original application form should you be successful to proceed to this stage.
This assessment will have a completion date/time, if you are not able to meet these requirements, please call and notify a member of the HOBAN Recruitment Projects team on 1300 304 128.
Please note that the only computer skills you need to complete this assessment are the ability to type in your personal details and to use a mouse to “point and click”. When undertaking the assessments you should ensure you are in a quiet and private environment where you can apply your full attention to the required assessments.
Please note: If your application does not progress past Suitability Assessment your results will stand for 12 months. You will be eligible to reapply 12 months from the date of notification.
If your application progresses through to the Telephone Interview stage, you will receive a call from a HOBAN Recruitment consultant. Your application form will be reviewed inline with these positions and Corrections Victoria’s requirements. HOBAN Recruitment may clarify some of your online responses with you.
This Telephone Interview will take approximately 15 minutes and may include clarification of some areas on your online application form along with two questions, one behavioural-based question, and one motivational question. To familiarise yourself with a behavioural-based question approach refer to the “Individual Interview” section in Stage Three - Assessment Centre.
If you are unable to participate in a 10-15 minute phone interview when you are initially contacted please advise the HOBAN Recruitment team and an alternate time will be arranged.
Please note: If your application does not progress past the Telephone Interview stage, you are eligible to reapply 3 months from the date notified of result.
If your application progresses through to the Assessment Centre stage, you will receive an email that will invite you to attend an Assessment Centre. This email will provide comprehensive details including confirmation of the date and location of the Assessment Centre.
If you are unable to attend the allotted time, we require you to notify HOBAN Recruitment via return email or by calling 1300 304 128 as soon as possible so that you can be given a more suitable date and time where available.
An Assessment Centre is a process that allows participants to demonstrate skills, attributes and behaviours specifically related to the role they are applying for, in this instance that of a Prison Officer. Should you be invited to attend an Assessment Centre you will be measured individually against a predefined set of criteria and not against any other attendee. This is done through engaging a group of candidates in a variety of structured individual and group-related exercises that have been designed to identify specific job-related skills, attributes and behaviours.
Each assessment is designed to simulate situations in the workplaces and to determine your current or potential competence based on your behaviour during the assessment process. This Assessment Centre will involve an introduction, a group exercise, an individual interview , suitability assessment and a work sample activity. These are outlined below. It will take approximately 4.5 hours.
You will be required to bring the following to the Assessment Centre:
Group Exercises can include a practical exercise, problem solving, or a group discussion or debate.
You will be provided with a fictitious job-related scenario that will require a group discussion. As a group, you will be provided with appropriate documentation which will outline the objective, the task and the desired outcome of the exercise. The exercise will be structured and timed.
The exercise will be designed to specifically identify job-related skills, attributes and behaviours. Assessors will sit at different points around the room and observe how you work with each other to demonstrate the identified job related skills, attributes and behaviours.
You will undertake a 30 minute behavioural based two-on-one interview. HOBAN Recruitment and Corrections Victoria representatives will conduct the interview process.
These interviews use past behaviour as a predictor of future performance.
You will be asked questions to assess your job-related skills, attributes and behaviours by providing detailed accounts of what you have done, have said, have thought and have felt in different situations (ideally work-related).
You will need to think of one or more specific examples around the identified job-related skills, attributes and behaviours which best demonstrate these. For each example that you will give, it is helpful to consider the following STAR method:
Your HOBAN Recruitment interviewer will guide you through this method, asking probing questions that will help you to provide detailed examples.
Provide a specific example of a time you set a goal and were able to meet or achieve it. Describe the situation. What was the goal that you set? How did you ensure you meet/achieved the goal? What were your considerations? What was the outcome of the situation?
Tell me about a recent situation when you had to deal with an upset co-worker or customer. Describe the situation. How did you deal with this person? What did you do? What was the outcome of the situation?
Describe a time when you anticipated potential problems and developed preventive measures. What was the situation? What was the potential problem, what measured did you develop? What was the outcome of this situation? How did your preventive measures improve the situation?
For this assessment, you will be required to undertake a 30 minute work sample exercise. You will be provided with a fictitious scenario based on a situation that may occur within a prison environment. You will be asked to read through the scenario along with supporting process/procedure information and provide comment to the scenario. You will be provided with 15 minutes for this part of the Work Sample. You will then be asked to complete a short presentation on your outcome to the scenario. You will be asked further questions during the presentation component. This second stage of the Work Sample Exercise will take up to 15 minutes to complete.
Suitability Assessment results may take place during the Assessment Centre and will be completed on a random basis as part of a quality assurance process. Please note that if you are asked to complete the random suitability assessment during the Assessment Centre activities you are required to meet the same benchmarks as your previous results.
If your application progresses through to the Offence History Stage, the Prisons Resourcing Team will coordinate a Police Record Check and VicRoads check on your behalf. The information contained in the police record will be taken into consideration in determining your suitability for appointment as a Prison Officer.
There are certain offences that will automatically disqualify your application. If you have ever been charged with, or convicted of, any offence in Victoria or elsewhere across your lifetime, you must declare it on your application.
Please note: charges and convictions include criminal offences, intervention orders, bankruptcy notices, general arrest or summons procedures, juvenile offences, any infringement or traffic notices across your lifetime. The only offences you are not required to declare are parking tickets.
If you are unsure of your eligibility, or would like to gain clarification we encourage you to contact the Prisons Resourcing Team on (03) 8684 0015 or (03) 8684 0035 for a confidential conversation.
If your application progresses through to the Reference Check stage, HOBAN Recruitment will conduct a minimum of two professional references based on your application. During the Assessment Centre stage, you will be required to complete an Information Disclosure Exclusion Clause with regard to the Reference Check stage.
Please note that if you have previously worked in a prison environment or similar, we require an additional two references from this employment. The referees must be part of the management or executive team. If you would like clarification on this, please contact a member of the HOBAN Recruitment Projects Team on 1300 304 128.
HOBAN Recruitment reference checks comply with the Equal Employment Opportunity and Privacy Act. Where appropriate, all qualifications are checked.
The completion of the Pre-Employment Medical Assessment is a compulsory part of your application process as it determines that you have the appropriate level of health necessary to perform the inherent requirements of the role of a Prison Officer. If you attend a medical we would advise that you take documentation from your treating physician in relation to any current condition or medical history.
Aims of Pre-Employment Medical Assessments
It is a legal requirement that you disclose information on all pre-existing injuries or illnesses that may be affected by the position you are applying for. If you do not disclose all relevant information you may not be entitled to worker's compensation if the nature of the job aggravates a pre-existing injury or illness. If you refuse to undergo a pre-employment Medical Assessment your refusal will be taken by Corrections Victoria to mean that you are unable to perform the inherent requirements of the work and the selection process will not proceed. Under exceptional circumstances, Corrections Victoria may consider any medical evidence you provide which establishes that you can perform the requirements of the work.
What are the steps involved in the Medical Assessment?
If you have queries or concerns about this procedure, please contact the Prisons Resourcing Team on (03) 8684 0017.
What does the Medical Assessment include?
The Medical Examination is a thorough examination of a number of different areas of the body relevant to the position you have applied. It DOES NOT INCLUDE rectal, gynaecological, breast examination or blood tests. You may be required to remove parts of your clothing to enable proper examination.
To ensure all Prison Offer recruits are able to undertake the physical requirements of the Prison Officer role and Pre Service Training safely, without risk of injury to themselves or others, it is a requirement of the Prison Officer Recruitment Process that all candidates must successfully pass the Prison Officer Per Service Physical Capability Assessment.
The Physical Capability Assessment is based on the physical requirements of the current Prison Officer Pre Service training, as well as the inherent requirements of the Prison Officer role.
Candidates will be asked to perform a number of graded tasks, which have been designed to assess the following attributes:
The testing is carried out immediately following the medical assessment with candidates being assessed by a trained medical professional.
A summary of the assessment components is as follows:
Lumbar and hamstring flexibility:
Lumbar flexibility is assessed by measuring the degree to which an applicant can reach towards their toes in a seated (flat) position with legs extended.
Hamstring flexibility is measured by the degree of elevation that can be obtained straight leg raising from the lying position.
Percentage of body fat:
This measurement is made by assessing skin fold thickness with a skin calliper.
Upper body strength:
Upper body strength is assessed by the applicant performing a series of push up style exercises. The exercises progress from the ability to support own body weight in a vertical position, progressing through an ability to support own weight in a kneeling position, and finally to a position where a candidate may demonstrate the ability to perform push ups from the horizontal legs extended position.
Abdominal strength:
Abdominal strength is assessed by the degree to which an applicant can perform sit-ups from a horizontal position.
Aerobic capacity:
The aerobic capacity (VO2max) is measured by the ability of an applicant to perform a step test. Details of this test are as follows:
Candidates should understand that their final assessment is a compilation of performance indicators in each component of the assessment process.
Preparing for the Physical Capability Assessment
Candidates that perform a regular exercise program and maintain a base level of fitness should not find the assessment difficult.
Candidates who do not do regular exercise may find the assessment challenging and should commence some fitness training activities for at least 4 weeks prior to assessment. This may involve a brisk walk daily for at least 30 minutes. There are a variety of fitness programs that individuals may follow and it is left to each candidate to perform activity that suits their own personal circumstances.
Candidates who have any pre-existing medical conditions that might impact on fitness training should consult their doctor for advice prior to commencing training.
All candidates are advised to seek some assistance to gain a base level of fitness before presenting for this assessment.
It is important that candidates start some form of training as soon as possible to ensure they give themselves the best chance for success.
The executive team of each prison location meet with the Prisons Resourcing Team to review all completed applicant files for their location, to determine overall suitability for the position of Prison Officer. The Prisons Resourcing Team, in conjunction with the prison's executive group, may complete any required clarification and may be required to contact candidates during this process.
Following this review applicants that form part of the order of merit are contacted and invited to attend the Prison Officer Induction Session. In situations where the order of merit is greater than the number of positions vacant, the Prisons Resourcing Team will be in contact with candidates to discuss the possibility of remaining on the order of merit.
The Prison Officer Induction Session is run by the Prisons Resourcing Team, and is the final stage in the recruitment process before recruits begin their Training Course. These sessions take approximately 2 - 3 hours.
At the Induction Session, you are given details about the Training Course including pre-course reading materials and exercises. You are also given a number of employment forms to fill out. In addition, you will be fitted for your uniform.
The Induction Session is an opportunity to meet the training squad leader, who is an experienced Supervisor or Senior Prison Officer, as well as the other new recruits who you will do the Training Course with.
