Entrance tests for the City Police get under way with a record number of women applicants

A total of 4,827 candidates are invited today, Saturday 5 June, to take the first competitive entry exams for the 259 new places with the City Police. The municipal goal is for the number of officers with the corps to reach 3,500 by 2023, the highest figure in history.

05/06/2021 09:46 h

Ajuntament de Barcelona

Of all the candidates, 32% are women (1,546), the highest percentage in the history of the entrance tests for the corps. In last year’s recruitment process, women accounted for 31.79% of all the applicants, compared to 25.52% the previous year.

The average age of women candidates is 33, compared to 32 among men.

Over the course of the morning, candidates will take the first exam (culture and theory), the second (aptitude tests) and third (knowledge of foreign languages) in the selection stage, in line with the rules for the process. The exams will be held in halls 2 and 8 at the Fira Barcelona facilities in L’Hospitalet de Llobregat.

New aspects to the competitive entrance exam

Recent years have seen measures introduced to foster the recruitment of women in the City Police (the new process maintains the quota of 40% women for new recruits), with a knowledge of English a scoring factor. The current process is the first time that a knowledge of Chinese, Arabic or Urdu are also scoring factors.

In this respect, most candidates being tested on foreign languages to push their scores up will do so in English, with 2,457 people having this option, followed by Arabic (30 candidates), Chinese (4 candidates) and Urdu (one candidate).

In addition, this is the first time that the physical test can be put back not only by women who are pregnant at the time of the exam, but also by those who demonstrate their post-natal situation, up to 16 weeks after the birth of a child.

Safety measures for Covid-19

In the areas used for the examinations there will be a minimum distance of 1.5 metres between candidates, who must wear a face mask at all times while on the premises. Candidates cannot be accompanied, and all the halls will have natural ventilation. Anybody with symptoms compatible with Covid-19 will not be able to take the exams, neither will anybody diagnosed with the illness who has not completed their shielding period, or those in quarantine at home through coming into close contact with somebody with symptoms or diagnosed with Covid-19.

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