Week 7 - preparing for work placements

It’s Tash here again. Hope you are enjoying the blog and reading about our experiences on the Prince’s Trust Programme.

Tea and brain cells

It was a cold morning on Monday as everyone came in but it turned out ok because we got stuck into filling in our log books. It was a nice relaxed day that used many tea bags and a lot of brain cells!

Preparing for a job interview

On Tuesday we had a jam packed day learning about how to structure CV’s, what to put in covering letters and how to conduct ourselves in an interview.

The sessions were delivered by the Learning and Development Team from Cheshire Fire. I personally found the day very informative and I used some of the information I had learned to update my own CV. The sessions were aimed at not only preparing us for the future but also for Thursday’s session where we will sit a mock interview.

We went job-hunting on Wednesday

We spent Wednesday at Verdin Exchange where we put into practice what we learned the day before. Some of us updated our CVs while some of us created a new one. We typed up cover letters and also did some job-hunting! We had to find two jobs that we could apply for that matched what we wanted to do after the course. We then entered all this information into our log book. We had to fill out our application form which of course is a lengthy, but a necessary process.

Mock interviews were nerve wracking

Thursday was the day of the mock interviews and everyone was handling it in different ways. There were some of us who felt confident and there were some of us who felt a bit uncomfortable however I think it’s fair to say we all felt nervous. The interviews were conducted by staff from the Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service HR department and Councillor Jones, who was very professional, but more importantly, very nice! After the interviews everyone was coming back with positive feedback which was great. It proved to us all that with a little bit of preparation, interviews don’t have to be that daunting!

South Cheshire College visit

As we had spent a lot of time on log Books this week it was good to end the week with a visit to South Cheshire College. We had an introduction to what the College offers and a few of the Team Members are considering starting up on their chosen courses on the January intake.

Work placement weeks

For the next two weeks we are out on our own on our work placements. I’m doing mine at St Luke’s Coffee and Cakes on Delamere Street which is on the way into Winsford if you were coming from Chester. If you call in for a coffee then please come and say hi to me.  During the next two weeks I hope to gain many new skills whilst on placement and look forward to reporting back my experiences in a couple of weeks.......so for now cheerio and I’ll blog you in a few weeks.


Last updated: Tuesday 21 July 2015

Related images


Preparing for interviewsPreparing for interviewsThe team at Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service HQThe team at Verdin Exchange

 

Last updated: Monday, 6 March 2023


Share