PROVING community spirit is still very much alive, a group of mentors and businesses have been helping young people by giving them ‘real life’ job interview practice.

Volunteers from the surrounding towns and villages of Duchy College, Stoke Climsland, have been helping the agriculture, food studies, animal health and management and equine training and behaviour foundation degree students by conducting the interviews as part of a module aimed at increasing employability skills.

Student on the FdSc equitation, training and behaviour course, Alex Hornsby from Torrington, said the process was ‘very realistic’ and the questions they asked were relevant to the types of job she would be applying for.

She said: “It was the first time that I had been interviewed by a panel, but they conducted themselves in a manner to relax me and the feedback we received after the interviews was extremely valuable.”

The mentors who helped with the interviews are all volunteers involved with a local programme, Mentor +. They are passionate about using their skills, knowledge and experience to develop employability skills in young people.

There were also local employers from outside the scheme, who gave up their time to act as interviewers.

Programme manager, Sue Horseman, said the interview day was ‘a massive success’.

She added: “The students were able to experience what it is really like to go for a job interview and were given feedback to help them further develop their interview skills.”

Founder of the scheme, Ali Carnegie, from Total Energy Solutions, said: “We all thoroughly enjoyed the experience. The students were enthusiastic, motivated and had done plenty of preparatory work. The level of commitment they all showed to their chosen careers was impressive and I believe we have helped them to ‘come across’ the interview table at their best.”

She added: “The mentors and other employers who acted as interviewers were a huge asset to the process having a wealth of experience in interviewing and selecting employees — they were able to make the process as close to real life as possible to provide informed and encouraging guidance for future development.”

Team lead for HE animal science, Alison Abbey, added: “This was an important process for our students to go through, helping them to develop vitally important employability skills.”