EUROPEAN PERSONNEL SELECTION OFFICE (EPSO)
NOTICE OF OPEN COMPETITIONS EPSO/AD/362/18 — ADMINISTRATORS (AD 6) AND EPSO/AST/145/18 — ASSISTANTS (AST 3) IN THE FIELD OF ARCHIVISTICS/RECORDS MANAGEMENT (2018/C 324 A/01)Deadline for registration: 16 October 2018 at 12.00 (midday), CET
The European Personnel Selection Office (EPSO) is organising open competitions, based on qualifications and tests, to draw up reserve lists from which the Institutions of the European Union may recruit new members of the civil service as ‘administrators’ and ‘assistants’ (function groups AD and AST, respectively). This notice of competitions and its annexes form the legally binding framework for these selection procedures. Please see ANNEX III for the general rules governing open competitions.
Number of successful candidates sought:
EPSO/AD/362/18 — 20
EPSO/AST/145/18 - 43
WHAT TASKS CAN I EXPECT TO PERFORM?
EPSO/AD/362/18: As an archivist/record manager, you will be responsible for one or more aspects of the institution’s records, archives and information management policy. You may be called upon to develop, implement and monitor policies and strategies for records, archives and information management, including capture, selection and retention, digital preservation, content management and information retrieval. You will ensure that the institution manages its archives, information and documents in accordance with the applicable legal framework, including confidentiality, access to documents and data protection legislation.
EPSO/AST/145/18: As an assistant archivist/record manager you will contribute to the implementation of records, archives and information management, and the development and use of dedicated IT systems.
You will collect, sort and index, classify and preserve documents, write contextual historical descriptions of holdings, enter
document and file references in Electronic Document Management Systems, provide support on records and archives
management to colleagues and assist internal and external clients to find and retrieve information and documents.
Please see ANNEX I for more information about the typical duties to be performed.
AM I ELIGIBLE TO APPLY?
You must meet ALL of the following general and specific conditions on the closing date for online applications:
1) General conditions:
— Enjoy full rights as a citizen of a Member State of the EU
— Meet any obligations under national laws on military service
— Meet the character requirements for the duties concerned
2) Specific conditions — languages:
You must have knowledge of at least 2 official EU languages; one at minimum C1 level (thorough knowledge) and the
other at minimum B2 level (satisfactory knowledge).
Please note that the minimum levels required above must apply to each linguistic ability (speaking, writing, reading and
listening) requested in the application form. These abilities reflect those of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (https://europass.cedefop.europa.eu/en/resources/european-language-levels-cefr).
In this notice of competitions we will refer to the languages as:
— Language 1: language used for the computer-based Multiple-Choice Question tests
— Language 2: language used for the selection based on qualifications (Talent Screener), for the assessment centre tests and
for communication between EPSO and the candidates who have submitted a valid application. This must be different
from language 1.
Language 2 must be English or French.
Successful candidates recruited for these fields are required to have a satisfactory knowledge (minimum B2 level) of at least English or French in order to be immediately operational upon recruitment. A satisfactory command of one of these
languages is required because the metadata referring to the documents held in the institutional databases are mainly in
those two languages, and the information and IT tools the recruited officials will be working with as well as the training
provided to new recruits in these domains are solely available in English and French. Moreover, staff working in the field of records, archives and information management is required to have a satisfactory knowledge of English or French as they must be able to work with all the staff as well as clients and Members of the European Parliament who carry out their daily activities in these two languages.
3) Specific conditions — qualifications and work experience:
For EPSO/AD/362/18:
— A level of education which corresponds to completed university studies of at least 3 years attested by a diploma. The
diploma must include at least 2 years of studies or training in archives, information/knowledge management or records
management or be accompanied by a diploma in archives, information/knowledge management or records
management.
The diploma(s) must be followed by at least 3 years’ professional experience relevant to the duties. Professional
experience will be taken into account only after the date of obtainment of the diploma in the field.
For EPSO/AST/145/18:
— A level of education which corresponds to completed post-secondary education of at least 3 years in archiving or
records management attested by a diploma, followed by at least 3 years’ professional experience relevant to the duties,
or
— A level of secondary education attested by a diploma giving access to post-secondary education, followed by at least 6
years’ professional experience relevant to the duties
or
— Professional training (equivalent to European Qualification Framework Level 5 — http://ec.europa.eu/ploteus/search/
site?f%5B0%5D=im_field_entity_type%3A97), followed by at least 6 years’ professional experience. Both the training
and experience must be relevant to the duties.
Please see ANNEX IV for examples of minimum qualifications
HOW WILL I BE SELECTED?
1) Application process
When completing your application form, you will have to select a language 1 and a language 2. You will have to select your language 1 from among any of the 24 official EU languages and your language 2 from among English and French. You will
also be asked to confirm your eligibility for the chosen competition and provide further information relevant to the
competition (for example: diplomas, work experience and answers to field-related questions (Talent Screener)).
You can select any of the 24 official EU languages when completing your application form, except for the Talent Screener
section which must be completed in your language 2 for the following reasons: the Talent Screener is subject to a
comparative assessment by the Selection Board, it is used as a reference document by the Board during the field-related
interview at the assessment centre, and is used for recruitment purposes if a candidate is successful. It is therefore in the
interest of the service and the candidates to complete the Talent Screener in Language 2.
Please note that your whole application form will be accessed by the Selection Board (during the competition) and by the
HR services of the European Institutions (for recruitment in case you are a successful candidate) who work in a limited
number of vehicular languages as explained above. In case you succeed in the competition and are placed on the reserve list,
you will be asked to provide a translation of the application form in language 2 (English or French) to the recruiting services
if you have used another language for filling in the application form.
By validating your application form you declare on your honour that you meet all the conditions mentioned under the
section ‘Am I eligible to apply?’ Once you have validated your application form, you will no longer be able to make any
changes. It is your responsibility to ensure that you complete and validate your application within the deadline.
2) Computer-based Multiple-Choice Question (MCQ) tests
If the number of candidates exceeds a certain threshold for each competition, as defined by the director of EPSO acting as
Appointing Authority, all candidates who validated their application form by the deadline will be invited to sit a series of
computer-based MCQ tests in one of EPSO’s accredited centres.
Unless instructed otherwise, you must book an appointment for the MCQ tests following the instructions received from
EPSO. Typically you will be offered several dates on which you can sit the tests, in various locations. The booking and
testing periods are limited.
If the number of candidates is below the threshold, these tests will be held at the assessment centre (point (5)) instead.
The computer-based MCQ tests will be organised as follows:
Tests Language Questions Duration Marking Pass mark
Verbal reasoning Language 1 20 questions 35 min Out of 20
Verbal + numerical +
Numerical reasoning Language 1 10 questions 20 min Out of 10 abstract combined: 20/40
Abstract reasoning Language 1 10 questions 10 min Out of 10
These tests are eliminatory and do not count towards the other tests held at the assessment centre.
3) Eligibility checks
The eligibility requirements laid down in the section ‘Am I eligible to apply?’ above will be checked against the data provided
in candidates’ online applications. EPSO will check whether you meet the general eligibility conditions while the Selection
Board will check compliance with the specific eligibility conditions.
There are 2 possible scenarios:
—If the computer-based MCQ tests are organised upfront, the files of the candidates will be checked for eligibility in
descending order of the marks obtained in those tests until the number of eligible candidates reaches a certain threshold
defined for each competition before the tests by the director of EPSO acting as Appointing Authority. The other files will
not be checked.
— If the computer-based MCQ tests are not organised upfront, the files of all candidates who validated their application
form by the deadline will be checked for eligibility.
4) Selection based on qualifications (Talent Screener)
In order to allow the selection board to carry out an objective assessment of the comparative merits of all candidates in a
structured way, all candidates in the same competition must answer the same set of questions in the ‘Talent Screener’
section of the application form in language 2. The selection based on qualifications will be carried out, only for those
candidates deemed eligible as described above in point 3, using solely the information provided in this Talent Screener
section. You should therefore include all relevant information in your Talent Screener answers, even if already mentioned
in other sections of your application form. The questions are based on the selection criteria included in this notice.
Please see ANNEX II for the list of criteria.
To carry out the selection based on qualifications, the Selection Board will first assign each selection criterion a weighting
that reflects its relative importance (1 to 3) and each of the candidate’s responses will be awarded between 0 and 4 points.
The points are multiplied by the weighting for each criterion and added up to identify those candidates whose profiles best
match the duties to be performed.
Only the candidates with the highest total marks at the selection based on qualifications will go through to the next stage.
5) Assessment centre
A maximum of 3 times the number of successful candidates sought for each competition will be invited to this phase. If
you meet the eligibility requirements according to the data in your online application and if you scored one of the highest
overall marks for the selection based on qualifications, you will be invited to attend an assessment centre for 1 or 2 days,
most probably in Brussels, where you will take tests held in your language 2.
If the computer-based MCQ tests described in point 2 were not organised upfront, you will sit them at the assessment
centre. These tests are eliminatory and the marks obtained will not be added to the marks of the other assessment centre
tests in the calculation of your total score.
Unless instructed otherwise, you will have to bring your supporting documents (originals or certified copies) to your
assessment centre. EPSO will scan these during your assessment centre tests and return them to you on the same day.
Seven general competencies for the AST competition and eight general competencies for the AD competition, as well as the
field-related competencies required for each competition, will be tested at the assessment centre through four tests (general
competency-based interview, field-related interview, group exercise, and case study) as described in the following matrices:
Competency Tests
1. Analysis and problem-solving Group exercise Case study
2. Communication Case study General competency-based interview
3. Delivering quality and results Case study General competency-based interview
4. Learning and development Group exercise General competency-based interview
5. Prioritising and organising Group exercise Case study
6. Resilience Group exercise General competency-based interview
7. Working with others Group exercise General competency-based interview
8. Leadership (only evaluated for EPSO/AD/362/18)
Group exercise General competency-based interview
Pass marks for EPSO/AST/145/18: 3/10 per competency and 35/70 in total
Pass marks for EPSO/AD/362/18: 3/10 per competency and 40/80 in total
Competency Test Pass mark
Field-related competencies Field-related interview 50/100
6) Reserve list
After checking candidates’ supporting documents, the Selection Board will draw up a reserve list for each competition —
until the number of successful candidates sought is reached — of those eligible candidates who have obtained all pass
marks as well as the highest overall marks following the assessment centre. Names will be listed alphabetically.
The reserve lists and the competency passports, giving qualitative feedback from the Selection Board, of successful
candidates will be made available to the EU institutions for recruitment procedures and future career development.
Inclusion on a reserve list does not confer any right to or guarantee of recruitment.
EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES AND SPECIAL ADJUSTMENTS
EPSO endeavours to apply equal opportunities, treatment and access to all candidates.
If you have a disability or a medical condition that may hinder your ability to sit the tests, please indicate this in your
application form and let us know the type of special adjustments you need.
Discover more about our equal opportunities policy and procedure to request special adjustments on our website
(https://epso.europa.eu/how-to-apply/equal-opportunities_en) and in the General rules annexed to this notice (under
point 1.3. Equal opportunities and special adjustments).
WHEN AND WHERE CAN I APPLY?
In order to apply, you will first need to create an EPSO account. Please note that you must create only one account for all
EPSO applications.
Apply online on the EPSO website http://jobs.eu-careers.eu by:
16 October 2018 at 12.00 (midday), CET.
