Correctional Services Department standards are now higher than those for the police
NAOMI.NG@SCMP.COM
PUBLISHED : Thursday, 03 December, 2015, 5:12pm
UPDATED : Thursday, 03 December, 2015, 5:48pm
Many applicants fail to make it to Correctional Services Department passing-out parades. Photo: K. Y. Cheng.
Two-thirds of prospective prison officers are failing the fitness test they must pass to make the grade - with a handful even struggling to hold a broomstick properly during training.
Would-be guards are expected to pass five components of a fitness test: an 800m run, sit-ups, a 10 x 9m shuttle run, picking up beanbags while in a planking position and a vertical jump.
“The first and foremost requirement is to have good fitness skills, and the next is to adopt the same core values as we have,” said March Lee Kwok-po, principal of the Correctional Services Department (CSD)’s Staff Training Institute.
Correctional officers are in charge of a diverse range of work such as supervising people in custody, working in the prison hospital and managing vocational training activities for prisoners.
The police force recently lowered their physical standards for new recruits for the first time in 35 years after observing that fitness levels of officers and the general population had dropped in the past few years.
However, the CSD’s physical standards for recruits are now higher after the police abolished sit-ups and shortened the shuttle run to 4 x 10m.
Candidates also have to pass aptitude and Basic Law tests, along with group and individual interviews, after which they have to complete 26 weeks of residential training.
Media reports of increasingly young, spoiled Hongkongers who do not know how to take care of themselves have made headlines this year.
According to an Apple Daily report, several fire services recruits “didn’t even know how to tie their shoelaces, do laundry or iron their clothes”.
“We don’t have candidates who don’t know how to tie their shoelaces, but we have had some who didn’t know how to hold a broomstick properly while sweeping the floor,” said Lee.
“The older generation fares better in this regard compared to the younger generation. We’re more professional at holding broomsticks.”
The number of applicants fell from 8,000 to 5,300 last year, but Lee explained that the number fluctuates depending on the economy and job market.
There are around 50 vacancies for this year’s recruitment, which is open from today until December 16.
The CSD manages 29 correctional facilities across the city with almost 7,000 staff members.
http://m.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-crime/article/1886459/more-hong-kong-applicants-fail-fitness-tests-prison-jobs
