The NHS Leadership Centre has introduced a new online numerical reasoning test to cut the administrative time and cost of sifting through around 6,000 applications for its three NHS Graduate Training Schemes.
Provided by assessment specialist PSL, the new test was introduced following a review of the recruitment process.
“Our graduate training schemes are designed to produce the NHS directors and chief executives of the future,” said Fiona Maybin at the NHS Leadership Centre, which runs the graduate schemes.
“Numerical ability is one of a range of competencies that we test for during the selection process,” she said. “Last year, we tested 1,500 candidates over a two-week period. This year, we expect to test three times that number, as we’ve moved the online test further up the recruitment process.”
Covering general management, financial management and HR management, the NHS’s two to three-year graduate schemes lead to relevant professional or post-graduate qualifications, and open doors to management jobs throughout the service.
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There are 173 available places for graduate trainees in 2005, who will train in a variety of NHS organisations throughout England.
After completing the numerical test, candidates must get through two further stages of competency-based selection, including a group exercise, an interview and an assessment centre, before the final places are offered.
