Competency based interviews

We use a competency based interviewing approach to assess your potential for training. Understanding how this works will allow you to best show your potential.

Competency based interviewing uses behavioural and situational questions to assess your previous behaviour as a predictor of future behaviour, coupled with your own reflections and learning from situations and experiences. Although questions may ask for a specific occasion or set of circumstances, don't spend too much time just describing the occasion. Remember that our panels need to hear about what you did, the results of your actions, and your reflections on the outcomes, what you learnt, and what you might do differently in the future.

There are many websites with more information on competency based interviewing and models which you can use to help you structure answers so that you remember to cover everything you need. You might want to start with the jobs.ac.uk page on competency based interviewing.

The activities during our selection events are designed to offer applicants opportunities to demonstrate competence in the following areas: -

• Oral communication skills
• Self-awareness and openness to learning
• Personal maturity
• Warmth and empathy
• Resilience
• Professional skills
• Motivation and application
• Contextual awareness
• Problem-solving and decision making
• Commitment to fairness and inclusivity

These competencies are based on a job analysis exercise which established what is important to success as a trainee clinical psychologist. Ratings of all the competencies above will contribute equally to the candidate's score. Please note that you do not need to have clinical examples to evidence competencies - they can be shown through a wide variety of life experiences which will be equally valued by our panels. The person specification may also be helpful to applicants.

We aim to be inclusive in our selection process so that people from varied backgrounds can contribute and become trainee clinical psychologists. However, it is still important for those applying for the job of a trainee clinical psychologist to do some exploration of what the role may entail and the context of the NHS.

Selection interview panels

Your selection interview will last around 80 minutes and consist of 2 distinct phases.

Panels typically include: -

• A member of the programme staff team who will chair your meeting
• One or more local stakeholders such as a third sector worker, community representative, social worker, clinical psychologist, or other professional
• A current trainee

Activities during the interview

Following a brief introduction you will join a small group of other applicants to undertake: -

A 20 minute working together task. Candidates will work in a small group with an external stakeholder while members of the programme team observe and assess the interactions within the group.

There will then be 3 individual activities with your panel as follows: -

A 30 minute interview. The panel will collect evidence relevant to the competencies listed above by asking questions which will encourage you to talk about these areas. The panel will not have read your application form so do not assume they have prior knowledge of your experiences.

A 15 minute video task. You will be shown a video of people discussing a difficult non-clinical scenario and asked questions about the interactions in the video.

A 15 minute role play task. A member of the panel will undertake a 5 minute role play of a challenging social situation followed by a brief discussion of the issues raised. This is not an assessment of your clinical skill but of your social and communication skills. A short description of the situation to be role played will be provided ahead of your interview.

All assessed activities may be recorded for the purposes of internal quality assurance.

Support for individuals with a disability

If you are attending our selections event and have specific support, ICT or access requirements, please contact us urgently if you have not already done so at the screening stage to advise us of any specific support you may feel you need. You can email us via dclinpsyadmissions@lancaster.ac.uk or phone us for an informal chat on 01524 592691.

Offers and feedback

Provisional offers

Following the final stage of the interview process, we will contact attendees by telephone to notify them of the outcome as soon as possible. We ask candidates who are made an offer to repeat the screening test under supervised conditions - these will be arranged on an individual basis to fit with candidates' schedules and within a timescale that allows candidates to make a genuine choice between programmes where multiple offers are received. All offers are conditional on the retest result, a satisfactory DBS check, employment references and an occupational health check as detailed below.

Interview feedback

Feedback on your performance will be emailed to candidates following the selection process. Please do not telephone or email the programme for this information.