ScoobyDoo555

Not me this time, but Wifey. She's changing career - from Nursing into NVQ assessing (Health & Social Care).

She's very qualified (A1, PTTLS, L3 NVQ HSC, 16 years of experience in both private and NHS), but is struggling to find a company who will take her on. Based in the countryside, we realise that she would have to travel.


When she gets to interview, feedback is always very positive, stating that she's interviewed well and that she "would make a very good assessor", but due to lack of assessing inexperience, doesn't get offered the position, as the companies aren't prepared to provide a support mechanism.
So the issue isn't her personality, or not giving the right answers, nor her vocational experience. Just the lack of assessing experience.



The vicious circle being that to get experience, she needs assessing caseloads!!


Any suggestions on how to get out of this "circle", as once she finds a company willing to take her, she'll fly.

Tough one, I think.

Dan

DCI Gene Hunt

Hmmm....

This is an age old issue, new job role & no experience... and how do you convince people that you're worth a shot?

You can't be good in an interview when you have no experience, you have to be great. That means that you need to sell something that people will want to take a risk (or more likely some pain over while you gain experience and make a few mistakes!).

I would suggest that you offer employment on a trial basis, say 6 months initially and she'll prove her capability etc. or if she hasn't she'll leave...

Just a thought..

ScoobyDoo555

Yeh, nice one - that hadn't occurred to me.. purely because she would be taking on "students/candidates", that once started, you gotta see them through to the end......

However, playing on that, the prospect of a lower amount of candidates to manage (a trial "year", as it were.....) might be something to consider.......

Food for thought

DAn

Midlife......

iTrader: (2)

By "Company" do you mean College / Uni type situation ?

The NHS is a pretty good employer (flame suit on) ........what's the problem with the NHS ??

Shaun

David Lock

Get her to contact the folk in the business and ask if she can be an unpaid observer for a time, perhaps a couple of days a week for a few weeks.

That looks good on a CV and she may be let loose a bit and gain some real experience. Also she will be at the heart of the business and the professionals in the team will have contacts and know where the opportunities are.

dl

ScoobyDoo555

Thanks David & Midlife. Some good points.
The "companies" are training providers (independent) - no issue with the NHS except that they're not hiring assessors at the moment.

Will pass on the advice David

cster

They're bad for the soul ;-)

hodgy0_2

I posted on this a while ago -- Internships are the way forward, essentially working for free to gain experiance and break the vicious circle

another US import

Leslie

Very short sighted of the interviewers to take that attitude.

An intelligent person, especially one with all those qualifications, would pick up the job very quickly anyway.

They must refuse a lot of very capable people which is very much their loss.

Les

ScoobyDoo555

Agreed - I think it's just finding an employer to take the risk: the daft thing is the I can provide the support (I'm a qualified Mentor, and work in FE, so am fully aware of the qualification structure) - but this defeats the object, imho. If companies are going to bring through new "talent", they need to support their recruits.....

Time will tell - she just has to keep plugging away at it (hopefully without becoming demoralised)......

Thanks for the comments/suggestions so far

DAn