PUPILS at a school in Calne were given hands-on experience in applying for jobs when employers from local businesses sat them down for an interview.

As part of The John Bentley School’s career programme, Year 10 pupils took part in the Big Interview Day, where they applied for jobs and 26 volunteers from 17 local businesses including Wiltshire College, Siemens, and the NHS looked at their CV and letter of application, and conducted mock interviews.

Careers and work-related learning coordinator Dave Smith, who runs the careers programme, said: “We do this to give the students experience of an interview, to give them a sense of what a job interview or a university interview would be like.”

Before the much-anticipated interviews, pupils chose the type of job they would like to do and put together their CV’s and letters of application.

“They updated their CV ready for the job they wanted to apply for, and wrote a cover letter explaining why they wanted to apply for the job, saying what they could bring to the job,” Mr Smith explained.

“They thought about questions they might want to ask, thought about personal presentation and researched the company so they knew what it is about.

“For me, it is my favourite of the career events we do every year. They all get dressed up in business dress for the day.

“They were all really nervous, you could see how nervous they were. But they had put a lot of preparation into it so afterwards they were feeling great about how the interviews had gone.”

The pupils were told whether they would have passed the application and interview stage and were given constructive criticism and told what they could do to improve.

Mr Smith Added,“They now feel more prepared, and speaking to students they really enjoyed the day and got a lot out of it.

“They now know it is really important to get the application as good as they can make it.”