Requirements

Senior prison officer - requirements

As a senior prison officer, you’ll use your excellent organisational skills to manage a team and plan and deliver operational activities. Learn more about a career in a senior position in the prison service, find out what it involves and what you’ll need to study and do to get a role.

Know what you'll need to land a job below.

What qualifications do you need to be a senior prison officer?

A degree in any subject will help but a relevant one in a social science will prove most useful. Subjects to consider include:

Please note this is a beta version. We'll continue to improve our suggestions here so that we show you the most relevant subjects.

Do you need a postgraduate qualification to be a senior prison officer?

Although it’s not essential to do a postgraduate course, it can help develop your skills and improve your career opportunities.

Examples of taught MScs, MAs and research degrees at postgraduate level include:

Counter-terrorism
Criminal investigation
Criminal justice
Mental health nursing
Social work
Working with adults and young offenders

What skills do you need to be a senior prison officer?

As well as an excellent understanding of the criminal justice system, you’ll need to be good at motivating and managing a team, thinking quickly and multi-tasking.

Hard skills usually include:

Auditing
Finance
Key performance indicators
Loss prevention
Mental health
Risk analysis
Risk management
Social work

Soft skills include:

Communication
Customer services
Empathy
Innovation
Investigation
Leadership
Management
Operations
Planning
Teamwork

Do you need work experience to be a senior prison officer?

It's not possible to gain work experience for entry-level roles in these services due to various health and safety reasons. You'll usually need some on the job experience before getting a senior officer role.