Last week, level 2 students at Ashton Sixth Form College got a taste of that most common and dreaded recruitment tool - the Assessment Centre! The college partnered with careers organisation CragRats to give students a lifelike experience as part of our 'Futures' programme, a year long employability programme designed to fully prepare students for their future careers and to increase their employability.

The CragRats team played the role of employees from a large multi-national company called GSA who are tasked with conducting ‘Assessment Centre’ days at schools across the country in order to identify and recruit talented and skilled students who may be offered an opportunity within the firm. Students were guided through and assessed via a variety of modules, each one hitting a key skill they will need in the future:

• Psychometric Testing. Why is it done and what are employers looking for?
• Workplace Behaviour. What ‘type’ of candidate are you?
• Team building tasks. What are assessors looking for?
• Interview preparation and strategies to maximize performance
• Pitching and Presentation techniques
• Awareness of the need to take responsibility for their futures

As part of the day, students were also put on the spot to undertake a one to one Mock Interview. If this is not scary enough, we also filmed them! (pictured above)

Ben Worth from Cragrats commented,

I thought the group were superb throughout the day. They engaged, showed so much enthusiasm, contributed in discussion and conducted themselves in a mature and sensible fashion.  Their interviews were excellent and the dragon business pitches at the end of the day were all detailed and well thought out. The students were a credit to the college, they are students to be proud of, and an absolute pleasure to work with. I hope to visit again soon!'

Well done to Cameron Eastwood, Destiny Satchel and Adam Renshaw who were awarded individual prizes for their impressive performance. Also congratulations to Nicole Gomm, Taslima Mim, Nicholas Ryder and Dale Campbell who won the team prize for their business idea and pitching awards.