Unlike last year, when Covid-restrictions meant that most of the interviews took place via MS Teams, the interviews this year were held face-to-face. For many of the youngsters this was the first interview experience they’d had, and should boost their confidence for when they have their first real job interview.
This year the students were studying all sorts of subjects – including hairdressing, plumbing, health & social care and media studies. They were divided into different groups according to their level of study (levels 1-3). Each Interviewer was provided with a series of questions as a guide and interviewed the young person for around 10 minutes; this was followed by some time giving valuable feedback to the student and also to the tutors.
One Rotarian, Keji Moses, described the experience of being a first-time interviewer on behalf of Rotary: “It was really quite interesting – and good to see so many different personalities, with some of the students being a lot more confident than others that had to be drawn out of their shells”. She added: “I would definitely recommend people take part in doing these mock interviews – the experience allows us to better understand the young person’s world. So often young people are boxed together in one group – but in reality they are very diverse!”
Picture: Some of the Rotarians taking part in the interviews are photographed together – Leslie Stephenson, Brian Dobinson, Deborah Connolly (a former member of our club), Andrew Barchi and Jim Gascoyne. Picture credit: Keji Moses/Rotary Club of Canterbury.
