The senior leader responsible for examinations and assessments should take responsibility for the interview process to appoint a new exams officer and ideally conduct the interview or be part of the interview panel
Consideration should also be given to the type of questions which will be asked during the interview. These should be based upon:
- Experience and background
- Scenarios which may be faced by an exams officer and how these could be dealt with
- Examination regulations and processes/procedures as set by the Joint Council for Qualifications and the awarding bodies
- Centre specific requirements
- Examples detailing where the applicant has displayed the necessary skills to undertake the exams officer role
Sample interview questions
Interview questions may be based around:
- Previous experience and employment, for example, working in an educational setting
- Experience of working in a regulatory environment
- Knowledge of exam regulations
- Skills required to undertake the exams officer role, for example, effective planning skills, managing several tasks/priorities at the same time, meeting deadlines, time management (particularly if an additional role is to be undertaken), communication skills
- Handling difficult situations, for example, failure of teaching staff to resond to requests for information, informing an invigilator that they will not be utilised during an exam series, dealing with an emergency evacuation of the examination room
- Responding to instances of malpractice or irregularities
Sample interview questions may also include centre specific requirements and scenarios.