A spokesman for the Civil Service Bureau (CSB) today (April 19) said that prospective applicants for civil service posts at degree or professional level can apply from tomorrow (April 20) onwards to sit the Common Recruitment Examination (CRE) and the Basic Law and National Security Law Test (BLNST) in Hong Kong, tentatively scheduled to be held on June 11 and 18, 2022, or another date within June or July if necessary.
In view of the latest epidemic situation of COVID-19, the CSB will adjust the arrangements for the examination if the situation warrants and announce them on the CSB webpage. The spokesman reminded persons who wish to take the coming CRE and BLNST to pay attention to the latest announcements.
Precautionary measures will be taken to safeguard the health of candidates and invigilators including setting up of body temperature screening at the designated location of the examination centres, requiring all candidates and invigilators to comply with the Vaccine Pass requirements, use the "LeaveHomeSafe" mobile app before entering the examination centres and wear masks in the centres, widening the seat spacing among candidates, etc. If the situation warrants, the examination will be held on separate days to reduce the number of candidates in each examination centre to achieve social distancing.
Valid CRE results are required of applicants for civil service posts at the degree or professional level. Results in the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education Examination or other specified public examinations are accepted as equivalents to different levels of results for the Use of Chinese and Use of English papers (the relevant details are available on the CSB webpage). Different civil service posts have different Chinese and English language proficiency requirements. Applicants should note the language proficiency requirements of the posts for which they intend to apply. There is no subject or level of result of public examinations which is accepted as equivalent to the Aptitude Test. Persons interested in applying for civil service posts at the degree or professional level in the near future may wish to consider sitting the coming examination so as to be eligible to apply for these posts, which may become available before another CRE is held.
In addition, for all civil service recruitment exercises to be advertised on or after July 1, 2022, attaining a pass result in the newly introduced BLNST will be an entry requirement for all civil service jobs. The BLNST will assess candidates' knowledge on both the Basic Law and the National Security Law. All candidates for civil service jobs must pass the BLNST in order to be considered for appointment, regardless of whether the candidates have previously taken the Basic Law Test (BLT) (either a BLT centrally conducted by the CSB or a BLT arranged by individual bureaux/departments in their past civil service recruitment exercises (degree/professional grades)) and attained a pass result. Candidates who have taken any BLT in the past and wish to apply for any civil service job advertised on or after July 1, 2022, must take the BLNST and attain a pass result in order to be considered for appointment.
The BLNST (degree/professional grades) is a 30-minute bilingual paper comprising 20 multiple-choice questions. Answering at least 10 out of 20 questions correct will be deemed to have a pass result in the BLNST (degree/professional grades). The pass result of the BLNST (degree/professional grades) is acceptable for the purpose of applying for all civil service jobs.
Applicants for the coming CRE and BLNST should be holders of a degree, or a qualification meeting the entry requirement on professional qualifications for civil service degree or professional posts, or university students who will have attained a degree in the 2021-22 academic year. Applicants may choose to take any of the CRE papers and/or the BLNST paper in the coming examination.
Persons interested in taking the examination may apply from tomorrow onwards through the online application system on the CSB webpage at www.csb.gov.hk/eng/cre.html; or by using the CRE and BLNST application form (CSB31 (3/2022)) which can be downloaded from the CSB webpage or obtained from any Home Affairs Enquiry Centre of the Home Affairs Department or Job Centre of the Labour Department (subject to the operation of the Enquiry Centres and Job Centres). Applications must be made before 5pm on May 3 (Hong Kong time).
More details about the coming CRE and BLNST are available on the CSB webpage (www.csb.gov.hk/eng/cre.html). General enquiries may be directed to the Civil Service Examinations Unit by phone at 2537 6429 or by email to csbcseu@csb.gov.hk.
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