Here's a quick guide to help you complete our application form.
General Guidance
All applications must be made using the College application form. This ensures that you provide us with all the information that we need. It also ensures that we collect consistent information about our applicants. Please make sure you complete all sections as accurately as possible.
You should make sure that the information you provide is clear, concise, well presented, well written and detailed. We recommend you proof read your application form before you submit it to check for spelling and grammatical mistakes.
Before submitting your application, please make sure you have read the relevant job description and person specification through carefully. This document outlines the main purpose of the role, the key tasks and responsibilities involved as well as the qualifications, experience, knowledge and expertise required to fulfil the role effectively.
Your application will be assessed according to how well you meet the essential and desirable criteria detailed within the Person Specification and if your application demonstrates a match to this criteria, you will be shortlisted for interview.
Please be advised that if there are any gaps in your employment history we will ask you about this – this is to ensure that we follow the statutory guidance on Keeping Children Safe in Education.
All employees are required to have satisfactory Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) Certificate. If you do not use the Update Service then we would require sight of a new form prior to your employment commencing. If you are to work in regulated activity (for example a teacher or support worker), this will include a barred list check as well as an enhanced disclosure, if you are not working in regulated activity (for example in an administrative capacity) you will be required to have an enhanced disclosure, which will not include a barred list check.
Part A – Monitoring Information
This part of the application form provides the HR team with monitoring data to ensure that our recruitment processes and robust. The selection panel does not see this part of the application form during the shortlisting process and would only be advised of any information within this section during the interview process to enable reasonable adjustments to be made.
Part B – Qualifications
Please provide details of all your qualifications within this section- remember that if the qualification is a requirement on the person specification we’ll need to see a copy of your certificate.
You are asked if you hold a level 2 qualification in literacy and numeracy – this means, for example, if you have a GCSE Grade A* to C in English and Maths – or another Level 2 qualification (NVQ 2 in literacy or numeracy.
Part B – Memberships
Please let us know if you are the member of a Technical or Professional Body or Institute – you’ll need to provide us with the name of the body, your membership number, level of membership and the date you were awarded with membership.
Part B - Training Details
Use this section to provide us with the information of any relevant training that you have undertaken that is relevant to the post you are applying.
Part B – Current or Most Recent Employment
Please provide information of your current employment, giving the name and address of the employer, your job title, date appointed, salary, Notice Period (if applicable), Date Left (If applicable) and your reason for leaving/wishing to leave. You are also asked to provide a brief description of your duties and responsibilities within this section.
Part B – Previous Employment
You are asked to give details of all of your previous employment within this section, you’ll need the Name and Address of the previous employers, your Job Titles, Dates of Employment, Salary and the reason for leaving.
Part B – Written Section
Please use this section to describe particular skills, knowledge and experience that are relevant to this post (including voluntary and community activity).
Go through the Person Specification and provide evidence on how you meet the skills, knowledge and experience relevant to the post. If the Person Specification asks for being a “Good Team Player” then do not simply right “I am a good team player” you need to tell us why and give us examples or we won’t be able to score you against this criteria.
Please state why you consider yourself suitable for this post
Looking at the Job Description explain why you believe you will be able to undertake the key tasks and responsibilities for the post.
Part C – Do you hold a current valid Driving Licence
Please answer this either yes or no.
Part C – Do you have use of a car for work or access to a means of mobility support?
Because we are a split site College, there is often a need to travel between sites and whilst we do provide a College bus service – it may not always be appropriate to use this due to the timings of the services.
Part C – Are you related to or do you have a close relationship with any member of the Board of Governors or College employees?
We need to ensure that you are not put in any uncomfortable position during the interview process and therefore if you do have any such relationship we would endeavour to ensure that if you are related to or have a close relationship with a member of staff or Board Member that they were not involved in the recruitment process.
Part D – Reference
As we follow the statutory guidance for “Keeping Children Safe in Education”, we request 2 references from you, one of which must be your current or most recent employer. On receipt references are checked to see if all of the questions have been answered satisfactorily. The referee will be contacted if any of the answers are vague. We also compare the reference to the information you provide within the application form and if there are any inconsistencies we would contact you to discuss this.
Part E – You are asked to confirm that the information that I have given in relation to questions concerning the ‘Criminal Record’ element is true, correct, complete and up to date and I have read and fully understood the note below.
As a college we are exempted from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 because it involves access to children or vulnerable people. You are therefore required to provide details of all convictions even if they are classified as “spent”.
If you are successful in your application, all employees are required to have satisfactory Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) Certificate. If you do not use the Update Service then we would require sight of a new form prior to your employment commencing. If you are to work in regulated activity (for example a teacher or support worker), this will include a barred list check as well as an enhanced disclosure, if you are not working in regulated activity (for example in an administrative capacity) you will be required to have an enhanced disclosure, which will not include a barred list check. We have a policy to re-check all staff every three years.
Part F – Data Protection Act
You will need to sign a declaration to confirm that you understand that the college will hold and process personal information about you in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation 2018. We use the information you provide only for the purposes stated in the relevant section of the application form, or for anonymised statistical monitoring. We retain information about job applicants for 6 months. For successful candidates, Application Forms are retained on the personal file and information from all parts of the application form is held electronically for contractual and statistical monitoring purposes.
Getting In Touch
Thank you for your interest in applying to work here at East Durham College.
Click here to view our Latest Job Vacancies >>
If you’ve any questions about a role that is advertised, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us on recruitment@eastdurham.ac.uk or 0191 518 5525.