An application form is the form that provides information on education, prior work record and skills.
A filled in application provides four types of information. First, you can make judgments on substantive matters, such as whether the applicant has the education and experience to do the job. Second, you can draw conclusions about the applicant’s previous progress and growth, especially important for management candidates. Third, you can draw tentative conclusions about the applicant’s stability based on previous work record (although years of downsizing suggest the need for caution here). Fourth, you may be able to use the data in the application to predict which candidates will succeed on the job and which will not.