Ensuring that students can still benefit from a meaningful encounter with our businesses has been a priority for us this academic year, with schools working with us to adapt to a remote interview experience for their students. Leicestershire Cares recruited over 100 business volunteers in the autumn term 2020 to give a mock interview and valuable feedback to over 700 students in 6 schools, with many more schools signed up to take part.
Feedback received in the past has shown that the 1:1 meaningful encounter that students have with a businessperson makes a positive impact on the year group of students with regards to their focus and motivation.
The pupils really benefit from the experience and for many the event acts as a catalyst to improve their focus and determination as well as reinforcing the notion that they are growing up.
King Edward VII Sports and Science College
Adapting to virtual mock interviews
The year 11 students at Rushey Mead Academy were the largest year group to adapt to the new remote event. Careers staff at the school worked effectively with us to ensure safeguarding standards were adhered to and that IT staff were at hand should there be any technical issues. As with any remote activities there were some challenges, but they were more than outweighed by the impact it had on students and business volunteers.
Impact
100% of students said they enjoyed the remote interview with 100% saying it was quite useful or very useful. 53% of students said that they feel a lot more confident for their next interview with 100% saying they are at least a little more confident.
One student shared her experience of the remote event.
The mock interview for me was a great experience to practice introducing myself and discussing my achievements and aspirations with new people. During my interview, I had the opportunity to speak to a friendly and professional individual, who gave me beneficial feedback on my answers. I found that the experience broke down common misconceptions of interviews being intimidating and tense and has given me more confidence going forward to present myself in a polite and appropriate manner to new people that I meet.
100% of business volunteers said they enjoyed the remote event with 100% rating it as good or excellent. 100% of volunteers rated Leicestershire Cares' organisation and delivery of the event as excellent with 100% saying that they were likely or very likely to recommend the event to a work colleague.
‘The event was really well organised - I was interested to see how interviewing would work on the virtual platform and was most impressed."
The education team at Leicestershire would sincerely like to thank all of our partner schools, business volunteers and students who have adapted to the new way that we are delivering our live careers events in this new digital world. We couldn’t have delivered them without your amazing support.
If you would like to get involved in the remote interview events please see link for upcoming dates.
If you are a school and want more information about the remote mock interviews or live speaker webinars please contact helen@leicestershirecares.co.uk.