use warnings;
use strict;
use Data::Dumper;

my @errors;
my %app;
$app{"first_name"} = param('first_name');
# $app{"first_name"} = "test_value";

if (request_method() eq "POST") {
    my $first_name_check = &check_name($app{"first_name"});
    unless ($first_name_check eq 1) {
        print "Not through namecheck\n";
        $app{"first_name"} = "";
        push (@errors, "First Name: ".$first_name_check);
    }
}

print Dumper \@errors;
print Dumper \%app;

sub request_method { return 'POST' }
sub param { return 'testname' }

sub print_application {
    # do some stuff with %app and @errors...
}

sub check_name {
    my $name = $_[0];
    if ($name =~ /^[A-Z][A-Za-z\-']{2,40}/s) {
         return 1;
    } else {
         return "Helpful message.";
    }
[download]

Not through namecheck
$VAR1 = [
          'First Name: Helpful message.'
        ];
$VAR1 = {
          'first_name' => ''
        };
[download]