Access Programme 2020: Interview Skills Workshops
OxFizz is working hard to support young people who are most in need during this challenging time. Young people face increasing uncertainty in their university applications and reduced opportunities to access high-quality support as a result of Covid-19. Our work to support our young people to make strong applications to the best universities is needed more than ever.
Covid-19 has disrupted our model of face-to-face event delivery and necessitated in some changes to our 2020 programme and required us to move our support to a digital offer.
What is OxFizz’s online interview skills workshop?
Our Interview Skills Workshop is an introductory workshop for Year 13 students planning to make an application to Oxford or Cambridge Universities.
It aims to help them:
1. Understand the function and format of the interview process
2. Understand what traits interviewers are looking for
3. Analyse and practice approaching difficult questions
4. Create an action plan for how to use the following months to prepare for their application
How does the event work?
We know the candidates who do best are the ones who practice regularly - receiving feedback and guidance on how they can continue improving.
As such, the aim of the workshops isn’t to try to coach or lecture on ‘perfect answers’ but instead give them the opportunity to practice and work through a range of different questions – in pairs and/or as a group – and signpost additional resources.
At the end of the workshop, our young people were encouraged to think about their next steps in preparing for their interviews.
This year, 164 young people attended one of our 31 workshops covering 23 subjects. We are incredibly grateful to the staff at TAP and our volunteers, who helped organise and deliver high-quality support.
“I loved the discussion that we had and the fact that it wasn’t on a topic that I have experience talking about, yet I was able to use my own knowledge to form opinions and also listen in on what others had to say. It was also very helpful how it was broken down into each phase of the interview and the different objectives.”
Did the event go well?
We are delighted with the overwhelmingly positive student feedback – 100% of responders to our survey agreeing that the workshops they attended were enjoyable and helpful, and 100% agreeing that the workshops were well-organised!
Overall, the content of the workshops was highly appreciated by our young people. The “interactive nature” of the workshops was frequently mentioned in feedback as was the opportunity “to discuss and debate questions with each other”. Other positive notes were that the personal experience of our volunteers and the detail of information around the format, purpose, and types of questions were insightful and young people left feeling better informed and prepared.
“I enjoyed discussing ‘Beloved’ by Toni Morrison with the tutor, as she was very passionate about the discussion and the extract, and also pushed me and the other members in the group to push ourselves with our analysis.”
What was it like to volunteer?
Our volunteers were very positive about their experience of the day. Adapting to online delivery has been a challenge and there are inevitable technical hiccups but all sessions went ahead and our volunteers certainly seemed to enjoy them!
Will there be more events like this?
Yes, our Interview Skills Workshop is part of our year-round programme. We aim to support candidates from the early stages of their application, right through to their Oxbridge admissions interviews in December.
We are now in the final stage of our 2020 programme and will be delivering 1:1 practice interviews for each student. The majority of these will take place on October 18th and 31st. For more information or to sign up, please contact Mano (mano.emmanuel@oxfizz.org).
Last year we provided 2849 hours of support to sixth form students. Despite the challenges posed by COVID-19, we are on track to deliver as much support this year. Once again, we are incredibly grateful for the continued support of our volunteers who have enabled us to swiftly move our support online and ensure that it remains high-quality and beneficial to our young people.