High School Students at Dignity for Children Foundation Learnt Essential Interviewing Skills

One of the most frustrating aspects of a job hunt is that you can respond to job ads all day long and never hear a word back. On the other hand being called for an interview is nothing short of nerve-racking especially for a high school leaver. From sweaty palms to butterflies in your stomach, it is easy to let the fear take control of you. If only there was a way in which you could overcome the odds and deliver a stunning interview which makes the manager to hire you. Interviewing skills plays an important role among people’s life. The January 2015 intake Foundation in Science students of IMU understood this well when they were assigned to organise a soft skills workshop for 45 high school students at Dignity for Children Foundation (DFC) on 3 November 2015. They conducted workshop on interviewing skills to provide helpful insights to students especially on the techniques of attending an interview. This project is a task fulfilment of Cross Boundary Studies, one of the modules offered in the final semester of IMU’s Foundation in Science (FiS). The 33 FiS students were assigned different tasks, ranging from logistics, seminar organising and fund raising. To get it all started, the logistic and seminar group had to prepare a budget proposal, and source for a suitable speaker to facilitate the workshop which was held at the premises of Dignity for Children Foundation. The fund raising group organised a series of food sale activities to meet the targeted costing provided by the logistics and seminar organising team. On the day of the event, the FiS students’were provided a platform for them to grow in maturity and innovativeness when they provided constructive feedback to the students of DFC. The Foundation in Science students spent 4 hours in Dignity for Children. The first two hours was the interviewing skills workshop from an invited speaker. Thereafter, the Foundation in Science students dished out activities such as connecting stories and dumb charade to provide a practical experience of the knowledge they obtained from the workshop. At the end of the 4- hour long programme, the DFC and FiS students exchanged goodbyes, but not before the DFC students were presented with mementos from their new found friends. Cross Boundary Studies is a ‘homegrown’ module which teaches the Foundation in Science students creative problem solving skills. In collaboration with IMU Cares, students are given a project or task to carry out, integrating the 6 steps of creative problem solving skills. From this project, students learnt event organising, implementation of project, team working, communication skills, and honing their leadership skills. These soft skills are necessary to prepare the Foundation in Science students for tertiary studies in IMU. Watch this video on this activity.