On Friday 10 February, Holderness Academy & Sixth Form College held their annual Mock Interview Day for Year 11 students. Throughout the morning, students were given the opportunity to practise their interview skills with external companies from across Hull and the East Riding. Almost thirty organisations and businesses attended the event including Humberside Police, the NHS, The Tigers Trust, DVAP, Centrica, Cranswick and many more.

Justin Robert from Humberside Police supported the event and said, ‘The young adults were really well-prepared and clearly found the experience really beneficial.’

At the end of the mock interviews, students attended an awards assembly, where each of the companies nominated a student that they would ‘hire’ for the position they had been interviewed for, and they received a congratulatory certificate.

Carl Palmer from Humberside Police added ‘Students were really well-organised, and they got a lot from it. Most of the students deserved to have gained a position, given the amount of preparation they had done.’

Megan Hornby, who is currently a contestant on this year’s The Apprentice, was a guest speaker for the Year 11s and motivated students with her account of her experiences both at school and with her current career progression. Megan has successfully set up her own business and applied for The Apprentice to further her career as a young entrepreneur. She gave students advice on how to set up a successful business and said, ‘Building a positive relationship with everyone is key.’ The students were fully engaged with her life experiences and asked questions at the end of the session as well as taking the opportunity to get a photograph with her!

In the afternoon, students attended an engaging workshop with a guest speaker Moj from the company PUSH. The workshop was called ‘Making a life, not a living’ and it encouraged students to be confident and show resilience. One of the activities included getting a student to participate in front of the year group where they had the option to take a bar of chocolate or wait until the end of the session for a surprise. Student Jasmine chose to wait until the end of the session and was rewarded with a voucher. During the session, Moj also asked students to share their experiences of the day.

Carl Derbyshire, who ran the event, had this to say: ‘I am really proud of all the students who have attended our event. All of the companies really struggled to pick just one student for the job which shows how well they conducted themselves during the day. It has been a day both I and the students won’t forget!’

Overall, the day was a huge success and the students really enjoyed the experience!