Five Business Administration and Secretarial students recently took part in an employer engagement opportunity with Denplan.

Denplan held an interview skills course for 12 of their own employees, and invited students from Eastleigh College to attend and gain experience through mock interviews.

All five students were interviewed for the role of 'Customer Service Advisor', and were required to research the role and the company in order to prepare for the interview. The Business Administration students needed to be able to answer questions on the requirments of the role, which include:

• Providing excellent customer service
• Demonstrating excellent communication skills
• Obtaining additional sales through service
• Retaining customers
• Dealing with customer queries
• Encourgaing teamwork
• Maintaining patient records

Preparing for the interview also involved thinking about responses to scenarios and devising questions for the end of their interview. The students were all interviewed five different times, and responded very well to giving and receving constructive feedback.

The workshop is incredibly helpful to the students because it enables them to grow in confidence in an interview scenario and know what to expect when interviewing for a job. The day was very successful, and Eastleigh College have already scheduled more events like this in partnership with Denplan next year, incuding a new CV workshop!

The students; Carlie-Lee, Charlotte, Anga, James and Joshua, were all issued with 'You're hired' certificates at the end of the event.