Interview Tips and Techniques with Sport Birmingham at Archbishop Ilsey School
After working with Sport Birmingham through the pandemic and lengthy lockdowns by delivering virtual workshops to a number of different schools and year groups, EmployabilityUK was able to get back into a classroom environment and deliver face to face sessions on the 7th and 10th of February, which was a great experience for both our presenters and workshop attendees.
Working in collaboration with Sport Birmingham for these workshops, we were invited to Archbishop Ilsley School in Acocks Green, Birmingham. The audience for the day was young people aged 15+, who are working towards deciding their futures. These pupils were direction and action planning for either entering higher education, apprenticeships or a job and we worked with these learners over two afternoons.
Krys Nosek and Abi Davidson from EUK with Gina Whitaker, a presenter who specialises in careers advice and Higher Education, were tasked to deliver a presentation on Interview Tips and Techniques. The sessions were interactive to ensure engagement and those taking part were enthusiastic, answering questions and responding to our workshop content by asking their own questions. Some even stayed behind after the sessions had finished discussing their particular plans for the future with us!
During the session, we discussed the importance of good interview techniques and they were encouraged to discuss the two interview clips that were shown throughout the workshop. These clips depicted a “good” interview and a “bad” interview. They provided some entertainment as many of the learners thought the bad interview was highly comical. They left us feeling that they had really learned how not to act during an interview, and those first impressions are important. The sessions were well received by both the learners and the staff attending.
It’s exciting that these young learners were really keen to engage with us and commented that face to face was much better than virtual delivery, although both have their benefits. But our presenters’ point of view – there is nothing like getting back into the classroom, delivering and being able to get interaction during workshops, as the learners get added benefit from it.
