Harrow College students hoping to boost their career prospects have taken part in a competitive audition day (Thursday 19 October) run by Raw Talent Academy (RTA), the business founded by BBC’s ‘The Apprentice’ winner Lee McQueen.
Over 200 students applied to gain a place on the RTA Employability Academy programme. Following a rigid interview and selection process, this was then reduced down to just 50 students, who were invited to the audition. Students were competing for one of only 20 final places.
During the day-long audition which took place at the college's Enterprise Centre at the Harrow on the Hill campus, students were put into four teams and rotated across specific employment related tasks which included a selling task – testing the students’ sales and negotiation skills; a marketing task – creating an advertising campaign for Harrow College; a recruitment task – challenging the students’ attention to detail and listening skills and a Dragons' Den style business pitch – looking at students’ business skills and creativity.
Raw Talent's Employability Academy aims to give students an insight into business through a hands-on programme, which is extracurricular to the students' College studies. Activities on the programme include giving the selected learners the opportunity to visit a large corporation, visit the different areas of a live business environment and receive coaching from business experts on specific employability skills. Students will also take part in 'The Apprentice' style tasks before presenting details of their personal development.
At the end of the audition day the final names were selected. The delighted successful students, who come from a number of curriculum areas within the college, can now look forward to a programme of activities spread out over the coming months.
Commenting on today's audition process, Lee McQueen said:
“This is our 6th year in partnership with Harrow College which I am extremely proud of and shows the College’s commitment to their students. The students have impressed me again, the talent and maturity the students show year on year makes the final decision hard every time. The class of 2017 is going to be excellent."