Preparing Young People for Work

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As part of the school’s commitment to CEIAG provision to our pupils, we hold annual mock interview days for Year Groups 11 and 12 and have always used the services of ‘Essex Work Skills’, who have consistently delivered to a very high standard. Mark Sexton’s extensive links within the local business community ensure that our pupils are offered a professional, realistic interview experience with skilled interviewers, who provide them with invaluable verbal and written feedback to take away. Mark ensures that the whole process runs smoothly from start to finish and seeks the school’s input at every stage to ensure that both the Year 11 and Year 12 events are tailored to our exact specifications. Our mock interview days have proven to be a very positive experience for both pupils and interviewers alike and I hope that we will be able to continue working with ‘Essex Work Skills’ for many years to come.

Heather McCullough, Moulsham High School

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The New Rickstones Academy set up a Mock Interview day for our Yr10 Pupils on February 6th and this was the second time the Academy had worked with Mark. Students during the previous weeks had completed and application form and produced a detailed CV, this was then handed over to Mark who recruited and briefed the interviewers. The students were encouraged to wear smart interview clothes and it was explained that they would receive feedback about their performance. The day was well planned and the interviewers were professional and the feedback was informative and constructive. There was a 100% positive feedback response from the students. It was a significant part of our Yr10 Work Related Learning curriculum and enabled the students to get valuable experience before their Work Experience in April.

Christopher Dobson

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I had the pleasure of working with Mark during the academic year 2011-2012 although our school has used them for a number of years. Our school held 3 Enterprise Days for Years 9, 10 and 12. The Year 12 day was totally bespoke for us. I found Essex Work Skills efficient, knowledgeable, accommodating and enthusiastic. All 3 days were a great success which both staff and students thoroughly enjoyed. We hope to continue working with Mark Sexton and his team.

Emma McClelland

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As part of the School's PSHEE programme, a section of Year 11 students study an Economic Wellbeing course. This course explores different topics around employment, C.V. creation, application forms, interview skills, money, finance and enterprise. Having an understanding of these topics allows our students to be better prepared for the post-16 world and so achieve economic independence and sustainability. We worked with Mark and Anne to deliver interviews with business leaders from the local community. I like to make learning as realistic and practical as possible and so having tangible interviews with people unconnected to the school was a great culmination of the theory work we had explored concerning C.V. writing and interview skills. Each of the 66 students had a 20 minute interview. It was powerful to watch students, who initially felt that interviews were simple and straight forward, realise that interviews require preparation, thought and technique. Were the interviews conducted by people from the school they would not have been remotely as powerful as having people from outside of the school. It was therefore useful and meaningful to organise and deliver such a series of events. All students came away increased understanding of how they communicate both verbally and non-verbally, how they need to prepare before an interview and how to represent theirs skills and abilities to employers. We feel that our students are now much better prepared for their first real interview, be it for college or employment and with this, they have a much better chance of success. Much of this is due to the work that Mark and Anne did for us.

Neal Wilcox

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We have worked with Mark and Anne on several projects, including our Preparing for Interview programme. Their commitment, professionalism and organisation meant that out all 280 of our year 11 students received a high quality interview with a skilled and experienced business interviewer, an experience their feedback confirms they found extremely valuable. I have rebooked for next year and look forward to continuing to work with Essex Work Skills.

Phil Cass

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I would like to thank Mark Sexton and Essex Work Skills for their continued partnership with CCHS in terms of the planning and delivery of Enterprise Days across the various Key Stages. For example, recently, with the help of Mark and Essex Work Skills, we delivered a Year 10 Digital Marketing Enterprise Day which was a major success with our students. Not only did Mark carefully plan all parts of the day, he also recruited a digital marketing expert in Ruth Bradshaw who owns a digital marketing company called ‘Marketing Simply’ to act as a guest speaker to our students and help throughout the day. Essex Work Skills continue to be able to adapt to our needs as an exceptionally high achieving and forward looking school and their willingness to abandon and innovate is something we commend! We are continually striving to best prepare students for life in the modern workplace and global economy and we feel our partnership with Essex Work Skills allows us to achieve this from an Enterprise perspective. Gerard Hughes Head of Economics and Enterprise/Year 7 Leader

Gerard Hughes