Interview Skills Day a Big Success at Ballymena Academy
The selection process for new employees has changed dramatically over the past number of years. For many companies the old process of filling in an application and getting an interview has been replaced by multi-stage Assessment Centres that can last a full day or even several days.
To prepare their pupils for such important events, Ballymena Academy partnered with educational consultants, eye4education, to run a day long Assessment Centre with their year 14 pupils on Thursday the 18th of October. These pupils were put through 4 rigorous stages: Stage 1 – Application; Stage 2 – Aptitude Tests; Stage 3 – Group Assessment (where they were observed as they worked as a team to complete tasks) and finally Stage 4 – Interviews.
Over 20 business volunteers from companies all over Northern Ireland put the pupils through their paces culminating in one-on-one interviews.
This experience will set these pupils up to excel when they are confronted by selection procedures – whether it be interviews for University or interviews for employment.
The following six Pupils would have received job offers as a result of successfully completing all four stages of the Assessment Centre: Thomas Davison, Aaron Clinton, Laura Hamilton, Alice McFetridge, Sarah McNabney and Jack Turner.
Mr S. Black, thanked all participants for giving of their expertise and time in helping to prepare the sixth form pupils for the world of work. Ballymena Academy places great emphasis on developing pupils’ employability skills and it is heartening to see so many representatives from business, industry and various professions contributing to such an important and worthwhile event.
