Mes: febrero 2023

Update on the Commission internal competitions

~ Ya semos Europeos ~ Deja un comentario

Dear colleagues, despite all odds, the internal competitions are moving forward. Recently, the organisers have published an update of the indicative calendar for AD5, as well as some addenda to the other competitions. 

What do we know and what to expect?

As we speak, only the AD/03/22 (AD5) has published an indicative planning of the competition. As for the other internal competitions, let’s make a split between AD7, AD9 and AD12 on the one hand, and AST/SC2, AST2 and AD6 on the other.

As regards AD7, AD9 and AD12, we don’t know much and we can only wait. Applications were submitted before Christmas and now the eligibility check and talent screener review are going on. Will the board let us know if we just passed the eligibility? Yes, as set out  in the point 4.2.1. Disclosure of information of your notices. This means that eligibility checks are ongoing as we speak and HR will then evaluate the talent screeners of those who fulfill the eligibility requirements (several hundreds of colleagues). Being optimistic, the oral interview for these competitions won’t happen until May in these competitions.

For AST/SC2, AST2, AD6 we just saw the addenda published last Friday (3rd February) where the organisers decided to change the order of the phases. Now, the eligibility checks will take place before the tests (MCQ and Written test). In practical terms, this helps them to reduce the amount of candidates in the competition, remember that only in AD6 we had more than 1700 applications submitted and there are only 100 laureates sought. The MCQ and the written test were announced for March.

Dates foreseen for each phase

We have done our best to map what we can expect in the competitions AD5 + AST/SC2, AST2, AD6. Further below you can find some details on each competition.

COM/AD/03/22(AD5) has a month of advantage in the eligibility checks. The results of the eligibility checks have been announced for February (more than two months after the submission of the applications) and the exam is scheduled for March, most probably the first half, which leaves us 4-5 weeks to get ready for it. Don’t panic, it is feasible, remember you just need 30 out of 50 points to pass the MCQ and you can still practice with 1 or 2 written tests per week. 

For AD6, AST and AST/SC2, if we consider a similar period for their eligibility checks as for AD5 (a bit optimistic due to the higher number of candidates), exams should not come sooner than second half of March. As Easter time is early April, probably the organizers will do their best to organize the exam prior to it. Although we have more time to prepare, the difficulty will be higher (you need to get 35 out of 50 points in the MCQ) so we need to do an exhaustive work studding policies and institutions. For the written test, we can practice with 1 or 2 tests per week.  

Planing for AD7-AD9-AD12, let’s see if HR respect it

For AD7, AD9,AD12 we can only wait to have the outcome of the eligibility and talent, whether they will assess the talents profile by profile of each level, so they can move faster to the oral test on that profile or they will release the results all at the same time, is not clear. Considering the total amount of candidates in the 3 profiles (641, 898 and 515 respectively) it seems unlikely the will have finalised the talent screener of all the candidates by mid-April. Let’s wait.

How can I prepare?

For the MCQ, the resources are simple and publicly accessible. First thing, you have The Treaties, and the ABC-EU law, which contain the basics of the institutions and our policies. To go deeper in policies, our suggestion is to check the European Parliament factsheets  and the different materials develop by our Communication colleagues to explain the Commission’s policies and actions, always following the 6 priorities of the current Commission. Altogether, this is a lot of material and should be more than enough to pass the test, but don’t forget to elaborate your own notes and mind maps to retain it.

For the written test, it’s important to underline what is said in the notice of your competitions:

A written assignment (e.g. a briefing, letter or note) based on various documents on EU policies and institutions. This written test will assess the competencies required to perform the duties of an administrator in the Commission in your field of the competition.

Therefore, this is not like the MCQ. The written tests does not test knowledge, but competencies (or skills if you want). Besides, as most of you are familiar with the EPSO materials, our first advice is to take the EPSO case studies (here the one available from EPSO web page) for practice, which will give you a fair idea on how to handle an assignment under a strict time constraint. Complementary, you could do some of your briefings and work-related tasks against the clock, setting the time every time you had to deliver a briefing or contribution and then checking afterwards before sending it (we don’t want to cause any harm 🙂

Regarding the oral interviews of any competition, as the number of candidates is huge and the invitations to the interviews few, sour surprises may happen. at this moment, using whole numbers of candidates and the total spots offered for a rough estimate, the chances of being invited to the interview are of 1 in 3 for AD12, 1 in 8 AD9 and 1 in 4 for AD7.

Therefore we don’t advice to prepare the oral interview in such an early stage. Wait until you had confirmation of passing the eligibility checks at least.

What can YSE do for you?

We will do our best to help you passing the test. Based on our experience and success in previous internal competitions (the last AD5 had a 90% success rate in the MCQ and the written test), we have developed an online training that allows you to advance at your own peace. We offer to you:

  • A set of 650 original questions for the MCQ with a collection of supporting materials
  • 6 written tests that will guarantee you get the practice you need.

Each MCQ and written test contain a video-feedback highlighting the most relevant aspects of the test.

To join our training or get additional details on it, here you can find the form.

Also, all our latest news are available in our Telegram channel @yasemoseuropeos

EPSO ha muerto, larga vida a EPSO

~ Ya semos Europeos ~ 2 comentarios

Estimados lectores,

La semana pasada vino con una sorpesa de esas que hacen que te atragantes: el órgano director de EPSO dio a conocer el nuevo sistema de exámenes/oposiciones y el primer anuncio fue llamativo (en la imagen) [English version here]

The ‘Assessment Centre’ and its related oral tests, in place since 2010, ceases to exist…/ El Assessment y sus examenes orales, que funcionaba desde 2010, ha dejado de existir… glups!

EPSO -dixit

Así que EPSO ha muerto, larga vida a «EPSOlution» (como el nuevo modelo de evaluación ha sido llamado por el propio EPSO)… Espera, antes de que te de un infarto, si eres candidato en una oposición EPSO ya en marcha, olvídate de este post, tu oposición se adhiere al modelo antiguo (y recuerda que si estás en el Asssment Centre, podemos ayudarte con esas pruebas). Sin embargo, si vas a ser un candidato o potencial interesado en trabajar en la UE, este post es para ti. Vamos a responder a la avalancha de preguntas que seguramente te estarás haciendo en este momento: ¿Qué pruebas han quitado? ¿Cuáles se quedan? ¿Qué novedades hay? ¿Cuándo llega el nuevo modelo? ¿Por qué todos estos cambios?

¿Qué pruebas han quitado?

Los dichosos Talent Screener son las primeras víctimas. Al parecer, ya no serán necesarios porque el sistema de porcentajes (%) que se probó en paralelo es lo suficientemente bueno para ello. En algunos concursos recientes, al rellenar la sección sobre la experiencia laboral en la solicitud, los candidatos tenían que indicar qué porcentaje de su tiempo de trabajo se dedicaba a una tarea específica. Bueno, este sistema será la norma a partir de ahora para llevar a cabo los controles de elegibilidad y cuantificar la experiencia pertinente en el campo de especialidad requerido. Si quieres saber más sobre esto, te lo explicamos en detalle en este webinar que hicimos. Está por ver si EPSO hará la verificación de elegibilidad y experiencia pertinente antes de los exámenes o se dividirá en dos acciones. Lo sabremos cuando se publiquen las nuevas oposiciones.

Segundo y más importante, el Assessment Centre tal como la conocíamos se acabó. No más entrevistas con los miembros del tribunal de la oposición en las oficinas de EPSO (como se hacía antes de la COVID-19) o utilizando la plataforma Cammio (en la actualidad). No habrá entrevista basada en competencias (CBI para los amigos), presentación oral, entrevista basada en competencias situacionales (SCBI) ni ninguna otra. Si alguna de estas pruebas reaparece, será bajo la responsabilidad y supervisión de la Institución en cuestión en las entrevistas finales… ¿Qué? Sigue leyendo, ahora lo explicamos.

¿Qué se queda?

Igual que los viejos roqueros, la prueba basada en computadora (CBT) de razonamiento verbal, numérico y abstracto permanecerá viva y coleando. Sí, lo sabemos, hubieras preferido cambiarla por otra, pero la realidad es tozuda y EPSO no puede deshacerse de esta prueba. La buena noticia es que en el CBT solo tendrás que aprobar. Es decir, las calificaciones obtenidas más allá del umbral establecido para aprobar no importarán. Si no sabes de qué te hablamos con esto del CBT, te recomendamos estos post donde lo explicamos largo y tendido.

¿Qué novedades hay?

Nos llega que un cuestionario o test de opción múltiple de conocimiento en el campo (para oposiciones especializadas) y una prueba de conocimientos de la UE (para la oposición de generalistas) serán la norma ahora. ¿Es realmente nuevo? No exactamente, ya teníamos algunos ejemplos anteriores, como la oposición de Protección de datos, para la cual hicimos un webinar donde explicamos qué estudiar para el test de conocimientos. En el caso de los perfiles como AST, lo más probable es que haya una prueba de habilidades digitales, similar a lo que vimos en el último concurso de secretarios.

En el caso de los generalistas y la prueba de conocimiento de la UE, que nadie se asuste, no será un trivial para los fanáticos de la UE. EPSO ha indicado: se tratará de cuestiones de fondo significativas relacionadas con el funcionamiento de la UE, sus políticas y procedimientos. Asimismo, se ha comprometido a publicar las fuentes que utilizarán para generar las preguntas y todos tendrán acceso (a los recursos, no a las preguntas ;-)). Esta fórmula tampoco es nueva, ya que los exámenes internos de la Comisión contienen un examen muy similar (si no el mismo).

Prueba escrita para todos (Written test/case study). Sí, así es. Esta es la única prueba para evaluar competencias que permanece en esta parte del proceso. Si ya has hecho un estudio de caso, sabes a lo que te enfrentas. Si no, es una prueba (generalmente) de 90 minutos donde te dan algunos documentos sobre un tema que no conoces (y no está relacionado con tu competencia) donde tienes que responder o cumplir algunas tareas dadas al respecto. Aquí lo contamos con más detalle y aquí tienes un ejemplo proporcionado por la EPSO. Recuerda que este examen tiene como objetivo evaluar las competencias, incluidas las habilidades de redacción, pero no el conocimiento sobre el tema de la oposición. Para eso último está el test.

Probablemente, lo más importante no es el qué sino el cómo. Todas las pruebas (pruebas de razonamiento, test de conocimiento y y prueba escrita) serán en un día/sesión para todos y se realizarán remotamente. Es el mismo sistema que el CBT remoto realizado en las últimas competiciones, con la diferencia de que será más largo ahora al haber varias pruebas. Sin embargo, ten en cuenta que aunque realices todos los tests en un día, tu examen escrito solo se corregirá si has pasasdo la prueba de conocimiento y el CBT, lo que hace que el proceso sea mucho más rápido.

Nuestra humilde propuesta para visualizar el proceso. *- esta por ver si irá todo junto o separado.

En este punto también hay cierta controversia, ya que los candidatos que estaban acostumbrados al sistema antiguo, en las instalaciones de Prométric (el subcontratista oficial de EPSO para ello), no acogieron muy bien el cambio, así como los que echan en falta la calculadora física en la prueba de razonamiento numérico. Para aquellos con un centro Prometric cerca de casa, la logística era mucho más simple que en línea. Pero siendo justos, la evaluación remota ha dado una excelente oportunidad a los nuevos candidatos y particularmente para aquellos que viven lejos de un centro Prometric para participar. Teniendo en cuenta esto y el hecho de que este método es más barato que el antiguo sistema, será mejor que nos hagamos a la idea de vivir con los nuevos exámenes en línea monitoreados durante mucho tiempo. Por el camino, cruzamos los dedos para que todos los problemillas técnicos propios de un nuevo tipo/plataforma de examen se vayan solucionando.

¿Qué pasa después de pasar las pruebas?

Si pasas el dichoso CBT, el test de conocimientos y la prueba escrita y cumples con todos los criterios de experiencia de la oposición (que se indicarán en la convocatoria), te pondrán en una lista de reserva. Solo los que figuren en la lista de reserva tendrán acceso al proceso de contratación organizado por cada institución. En este proceso se seguirán revisando las competencias generales. ¿Cómo? Eso quedará a criterio de la institución organizadora, EPSO solo les ayudará si lo solicitan. Por ahora, lo más probable es que se realicen entrevistas de campo (field-related interview) sobre la especialidad correspondiente, algo que ya conocemos y se puede preparar de antemano.

¿Cuándo pasaremos al nuevo modelo?

En mayo se publicarán las nuevas oposiciónes, una para Economistas (AD6) y otro para Administradores en el campo de la propiedad intelectual (AD6). Hasta entonces, algunos cambios y ajustes finales pueden ocurrir. Por lo tanto, con los nuevos anuncios de oposición en la mano, actualizaremos nuestro análisis de forma precisa, ajustándonos al nuevo sistema (al igual que nuestras formaciones). Mientras tanto, seguimos informándos sobre este y otros asuntos relacionados con los #eurocurros, así que no olvides unirte a nuestro Canal de Telegram YSE  para no perderte nada… pero si quieres saber más sobre lo que haremos, apuntate aquí

Ahora nos queda una última pregunta por responderte…

Aquí lo que se viene por ahora, hay más rumores de otras oposiciones pero nada confirmado aún.

¿Por qué está sucediendo esto?

Estos cambios son el resultado final de un largo proceso de transformación dentro de EPSO para que las oposiciones sean más rápidas y sencillas, queriendo reducirlas de una media de 13 meses a 6 meses de duración. Esto comenzó ya en 2020 y, en particular, después del informe del tribunal de cuentas (Court of Auditors para los amigos), donde se llegó a varias conclusiones y alguna de ellas escoció un poco (resumen breve: el proceso de selección resultaba poco eficiente para la contratación de especialistas y, en general, para todos los perfiles era demasiado largo). Al mismo tiempo que arrancaba la reflexión, llegó la pandemia y fuimos obligados a adoptar el teletrabajo (siempre que fuera posible), de lo cual no se salvó ni el EPSO y cambió a un modo de evaluación online, lo cual también ha influido en el nuevo modelo.

Tampoco olvidemos que durante la pandemia, las oposiciones continuaron, pero a partir de noviembre del año pasado, hubo una pausa de nuevas oposiciones hasta mayo de 2023, igual que generalistas AD5 quedo congelada durante 2021 y 2022. Finalmente, ha llegado el momento de ver los frutos y a principios de 2023, obtuvimos el resultado de esta reflexión, que quedará consolidado cuando tengamos en nuestras manos las nuevas convocatorias.

¡Estad alerta! ¡Más noticias pronto!

EPSO is dead, long live the EPSOlution

~ Ya semos Europeos ~ 4 comentarios

Dear all,

Last week brought another surprise to our tables: EPSO’s governing body unveiled the new competition system… and the first announcement was striking (see picture below). [versión en Español]

The ‘Assessment Centre’ and its related oral tests, in place since 2010, ceases to exist…

EPSO -dixit

So EPSO is dead, long live the EPSOlution (as the new evaluation model has been called by EPSO). Wait a second, before you have a stroke, if you are a candidate in an ongoing EPSO competition, forget this post, your competition sticks to the old model (and check what we can do to help you with your Assessment Centre). However, if you will be a candidate soon or you are interested in working in the EU, this post is for you as you still have plenty of questions: What is gone? What stays? Why is this happening? When is this really taking place? Let’s see if we can reply to all of them.

What is gone?

Talent Screeners are the first victims. Apparently, they will no longer be necessary because the % system that EPSO has been testing over the past months is good enough to evaluate the candidates’ experience in a given field. In some recent competitions, when filling in the section on the job experience in the application, candidates had to indicate which percentage of their working time was dedicated to a specific task. Well, this system will be now the norm as of now to conduct the eligibility checks and to quantify the relevant experience in the field. If you want to know more on this, we explained them in detail in this webinar. Whether EPSO will do the eligibility and relevant experience check both before the exams or split in two actions will be clarified when the new competitions are released.   

Second and more important, the Assessment Centre as we knew it is over. No more interviews with the board of assessors in EPSO premises (previous to COVID-19) or using the platform Cammio. No competence-based interview, oral presentation, situational competency-based interview or any other. If some of these tests re-appear, it will be under the responsibility and supervision of the Institution concerned in the final interviews… What? Keep reading to know more on this.

What stays?

Old rockers never die. The computer based test (CBT) on verbal, numerical and abstract reasoning will stay. Yes, we know it, you don’t like them so much but they can’t get rid of them. The good news is that you will no longer need a high mark in the CBT to make it to the next stage. Now you will only need to get the minimum pass mark. Whatever you get beyond that passing mark, won’t matter. If you are new to this, here in this EPSO examples you can see what kind of tests we are talking about.

What is new?

A multiple-choice questionnaire in the field for specialist competitions or an EU knowledge test or generalist competitions will be the norm now. Is that really new? Not exactly, we already had some examples, for instance with Data Protection competition, for which we did a webinar where we explained what to study for this test. In the case of the profiles like AST, most likely, there will be a digital skills test, similar to what we saw in the last Secretaries competition.

In the case of Generalist and the EU knowledge test, don’t panic, it won’t be a trivial for EU freaks. EPSO recently said: it will be on meaningful substance questions related to the functioning of the EU, its policies and procedures. So it has committed to publish the sources they will use to generate the questions and everybody will have access to them (the resources, not the questions). This formula is not new either, as the Internal Competition exams in the Commission contains a very similar (if not the same) exam.  

Written tests for all. Yes, that’s right. This is the single competence-based test that remains on this part of the process. If you have done a case study, you know what you are facing. If not, it’s a (usually) 90 min test where they give you some background documents on a topic you don’t know (and is not related to your competition) where you have to answer or fulfil some assignments given about it. Here is an official example provided by EPSO. Remember that this exam aims to assess competences, including drafting skills, but not knowledge on the subject of the competition.  

Another really important question is not what tests will be conducted, but how. All the tests (reasoning tests, multiple-choice tests and written tests will be in one day/session for all in a remote mode. Same system as the remote CBT done in the last competitions, with the difference that it will be longer now. However, important to note that, despite taking all the tests on the same day, your written exam will only be corrected only if you pass the EU knowledge/specialist test and the CBT, making the process much faster.

Our humble visualization on how the new competition model-timeline will be

On this point there is also some controversy, as candidates who were used to the old system (and had easy access to the Prometric facilities), as well as those who miss the physical calculator in the numerical reasoning tests, didn’t welcome the change to remote tests. When you had a Prometric centre near home, logistics were much simpler than online, but to be fair, the remote evaluation gave an excellent opportunity for new candidates and particularly those living far from Prometric facilities. Considering this and the fact the new method is cheaper than the old system, we better embrace it and prepare to live with the new monitored-online exams for a long time.  

After passing the tests what?

So if you pass the CBT, the knowledge test and the written test and fulfil all the experience criteria of the competition (that will be stayed in the notice), you will be placed in a reserve list. Only those on the reserve list will have access to the recruitment process organised by each institution. In this process, general competencies will still be reviewed. How? That fall under the criteria of each institution. EPSO will help them only if requested, most likely field-related type interviews will happen, nothing that we can’t not prepare in advance.

When is the change coming?

In May, the new competitions will be published – one for Economists (AD6) and a second one for Administrators in the field of intellectual property (AD6). Until then, some final changes and adjustments may happen, so with the fresh competition notices in hand, we will update this post with a precise description of the new system and how the competitions will be conducted. In the meantime, we will keep informing you on this and on all the other #eurojobs-related issues, so don’t forget to join our Telegram channel YSE to stay updated.

If you can wait to know how we’ll help with our trainings or you want to be part of the very first study group for the new competitions, register here.

Why is this happening?

These changes are the final outcome of a transformation process inside EPSO to make open competitions faster and simple. This started already in 2020 and particularly after the report from the European Court of Auditors where several conclusion where reached (short summary: selection process proved not to be very efficient for recruiting specialists and it was overall too long). At the same time, due to the pandemic, we were forced to adopt telework whenever possible, which also affected the EPSO competitions.

In the meantime, competitions continued, but since November, new EPSO competitions were frozen until May 2023 and Generalist AD5 has been under re-evaluation during 2021 and 2022. And now, early 2023, we got the result of this reflection.

Stay alert! More news coming soon!