We believe in "giving a kid a chance..."

Which is why on Wednesday 22^nd February, Sue Sowerby, Nicola Wisbey and our work experience student went to West Hatch High School in Chigwell to conduct mock interviews with year 11, 12 and 13 pupils. We went along to support the preparation of the work place programme and were asked to mark students based on their interview skills on application for a Customer Service Administrator position – retail.

We were asked to provide honest feedback on first impressions to include appearance, greeting and handshake and non-verbal communications such as smile, eye contact and posture. We were then asked to comment on interest shown, how they spoke, quality of questions answered, body language and their attitude to the task.

The students were asked to prepare in advance and were individually assessed.

The whole exercise was extremely interesting and enjoyable for us. Years ago, there were no programmes like this. Many teenagers are blissfully unaware of how challenging the business world can be. For us it was about giving advice on how they could better their interviewing skills. How they can research a job before interview stage and the company background and what kind of questions they should feel comfortable in asking the interviewer about the role.

Many of the students are unaware of the skills they actually have – loyalty, friendly manner, reliability, caring, sharing – all of which are great qualities in an ideal candidate. Yes, there were a few students who didn’t care and happily said that they would work for their parents so didn’t need to learn, but for those that did, we think this whole experience was extremely worthwhile for them.

Our 19 year old work experience student who attended with the Sowerby Team found the whole experience of value. She is looking for a career within the events industry and has been working within the agency to gain quality hands-on experience. She learnt a lot from the morning session and even said she felt better qualified that listening in on the kind of questions asked, and the advice given, gave her extra confidence in preparing for her interview the very next day for her university placement.

As a company, this is The Sowerby Group’s chance to give something back to the community and our organisation is very committed to ‘giving a kid a chance – in business’.