What are the minimum and maximum age to join the Police?
The minimum age is 18 and there is no maximum age limit for most states. People in their 50s and 60s are graduating from the Academy. As long as you can pass the recruitment process and conduct the operational requirements of the job you can apply.
Case Study Success Stories
James was able to successfully pass his police application at the age of 19.
Vicky was able to successfully pass her police application at the ripe young age of 58 years.
Here is the transcription
Hey guys, Russell here. Prime Motion Training. Look, one of the questions that I get quite often from either younger applicants or older applicants is around their age and what their realistic chances might be of getting into the police force given their age.
00:16
If we look at the younger age, to begin with, if you’re 18, 19, chances are that you’ve recently left school and if that is the case, then the only real issue is likely to be satisfying the employment history criteria for Victoria Police, they expect you to be in full-time work and if you’re just leaving school and maybe you’ve started a casual job, that lack of consistent ongoing work experience could become an issue. That’s really the only concern. I mean, everything else around, oh you’re too young, you don’t have enough life experience, etc. It may or may not be an issue.
00:55
It really does come down to whether or not you have sufficient life experiences and look, I’ve helped plenty of applicants in the past who were 18 or 19 years of age and they’ve had some fantastic life experiences even at that young age. Maybe they’ve travelled, maybe they’ve done some volunteering, maybe they’re competing in a sport or activity at a really high level. There can be lots of experiences that someone can use to demonstrate specific skills and qualities, even if they’re only, you know, 18 or 19 years of age. So if you’re in that young age group bracket. The only thing that should be worrying you is the employment history. Everything else is something that can be dealt with as you go through the application process like any other applicant.
01:38
If we skip ahead to the old ducks, let’s say about to turn 50, I’m not sure where all duck starts and finishes, but look if you are, as a lot of people call it a mature age applicant, you bring so much more to the table in terms of life experience, generally than younger applicants and this maturity and you’ve probably experienced things that a younger person hasn’t.
02:02
Even if that younger person has done some of the things that I just mentioned as an older person, you’ve probably had a couple of careers, maybe. You may have children, or you might even have grandchildren. You might be paying off a mortgage. You might have run a business. There are lots of different kinds of life experiences that an older applicant can genuinely bring to the table. And along with that additional sort of depth of life experience comes some extra things that are a little more challenging for younger applicants to find. So it’s just things like maturity and really understanding how the world works. It’s the old saying you can’t put an old head on young shoulders and there are some things that our older applicants will resonate with that comment, that actually difficult to put into words.
02:48
Just you just get how the world works and generally how people work as you get a little bit older. So you bring lots more to the table than most younger applicants can. The only true concerns really if you’re an older applicant and oh, by older I’m saying, it’s not even a question if you haven’t hit the big five-zero yet. If you’re 50 plus, then two considerations would come into play. Everything else again is probably not that relevant and those two things are both fitness and health. If you’re a little bit older, then there’s a chance that you may not be able to reach the same fitness levels that you could have 20 or 30 years ago and that’s perfectly normal and you know, expected.
03:37
However, you still need to be able to comfortably meet the minimum fitness requirements. If you can do that, then the fitness box is ticked and there’s no issue. You don’t have to be a super athlete. You just need to be able to make the minimum fitness requirements. From the health perspective, this is probably the biggest area where an older applicant might run into trouble. Maybe you don’t meet the hearing requirements. You failed that hearing test or your eyesight doesn’t meet the requirements. It could be that you had some type of other health issues in the past. Maybe you’ve had a number of surgeries for an ongoing issue that you manage very well, but nonetheless it has been an issue in the past. Those are the sorts of things that will provide an extra challenge for an older person getting through the application process. But having said all of that, it doesn’t matter how tall you are, how short you are, male, female, age, gender, sexual preference, a football team that you barrack for, none of that means anything.
04:32
If you meet the application eligibility requirements, then you’ve got every chance to get into the police workforce like any other applicant and it will ultimately come down to the score that you are able to achieve. It’s not just about passing, you have to pass, otherwise, they kick you out. But if you do manage to pass everything, they’ll then tell the app your scores and put you onto a list in order of score. If you can get a competitive score, regardless of any of those other factors you have every chance of getting into the police force like anyone else.
05:02
So I would go to the Victoria Police website, check the eligibility requirements. If you meet them all and you can apply then you might want to look at things like voluntary disclosure forms which is something you can submit to Victoria Police. If you feel as though you’ve got a medical issue that could potentially derail your application, I would submit that voluntary disclosure form first to see whether or not Victoria Place is going to have a problem with that issue. If they are, they’ll let you know and save you the trouble of applying. Because it is a pretty long and competitive process.
05:33
However, they may very well say, look, we haven’t looked at your situation in great depth. We would need a lot more information but on the surface, we’re happy to take your application and look into that more deeply when you get to the medical stage. I’m sure you can understand from their point of view, they’re not going to look into your medical situation if you haven’t even applied yet. They’ve got thousands of applications to get through, and yours won’t be done until you get to that stage. But again, having said that, they will give you a quick, yes, we’ll accept your application or, no, we won’t accept your application based on the information that you provide in a voluntary disclosure form.
06:09
So if you’re an old duck, that’s something that you might want to have close look at. But again, if none of those things is relevant to you and you’re eligible to apply, go for it, is my advice.
06:18
Okay guys, I hope that helps. If you have any questions sing out, otherwise, I’ll talk to you again soon.
