Our thanks to the 28 members and friends of Hawthorn Rotary who gave up last Wednesday or Thursday morning to conduct Mock Interviews with the Year 9 students at Auburn High School.
Our line up included Di Gillies and Michael Blood from Camberwell Rotary who accepted an invitation to join us, as Camberwell Rotary are thinking about offering to support a Mock Interview program at Camberwell High School. They asked us about about the program a few months ago, and inviting them to be interviewers both helped make up our numbers and allowed them to see first hand how it all works.
This year we were scheduled to interview 130 students.
Mock Interviews are part of the school's "Essentials for Life" program, where the students spend a term learning about the world of work, resume preparation and updating, developing an accompanying letter and making application for a job. The application and resume is forwarded to the two Rotary interviewers scheduled to interview that student, and we do this for 10 minutes, followed by 3 minutes of feedback on what the student did well, and where they can improve. The result of this partnership with the school is the students are better prepared and more confident when it comes to the real thing.
The Mock Interview program has been in place since 2015 and over that time we have seen a big improvement in the standards at the school. This in turn has led to a big increase in the number of students at the school, and it is satisfying to think that we have played a part, albeit a small part, in this improvement and growth.
Those members who are long term interviewers invariably comment on how the students are now much more assured and confident than in earlier years.
We were invited to an very enjoyable morning tea in the staff room on both days and and following discussion with some of our members, the headmaster, Ross Pritchard, commented in his Thursday morning tea speech to the staff, that if they feel at all disheartened then to speak to one of the Rotarians for a positive affirmation of the school's progress.
The morning does give those who take part a great deal of satisfaction, because regardless of the capacity or preparation of a student, we are left with the feeling that they have benefited from the process and the feedback we give them.
If you haven't yet been an Mock Interviewer take the opportunity to be part of the team next year.
Special thanks to Pam Crockett who agreed to interview on both days when one of our volunteers had to pull out at short notice.