To provide students with a positive and realistic experience of employer interviews. Supporting them to articulate their strengths, both verbally at the interview and in writing during the application process. The activity also provided the students with a meaningful employer encounter tailored to their interests.
Students competed their CV’s and mock interview applications indicating a sector preference. Employers were invited to participate on one of the two hour sessions being held over 4 days. They were given sample interview questions but also encouraged to use their own if they had them. 8 interviews were run simultaneously in the computer suite and feedback was provided to each students during their next PHSE lesson.
Ensuring that the IT worked was critical so we enlisted the help of our school IT department. All employers took part in a technical rehearsal to ensure that everything would run smoothly on the day. We used MS Teams for the interviews and the school set up Guest accounts to host the meetings so that students did not have to give any personal details to the interviewers.
Virtual interviews are now the reality for most industries including further and higher education, and we are glad that our students can add this experience to their portfolio. Whilst we missed the networking aspect of face to face interviews there were real benefits to delivering this virtually, including being able to open up to interviewers from much further afield.
Kings School Ottery St Mary