Harrow College students hoping to boost their career prospects have taken part in a competitive audition day (Wednesday 19 October) run by Raw Talent Academy (RTA), the business founded by The Apprentice winner Lee McQueen.
Over 250 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 25 final places which would be announced at the end of the day.
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 five teams and rotated across specific employment related tasks which included trying to sell faulty/damaged products such as a broken bucket, an advertising campaign for a new sports drink, identifying revenue streams for the college to make money, a Dragons Den business pitch and undertaking a full recruitment process.
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, with unsuccessful candidates taking away valuable experience and receiving detailed feedback from RTA on how they can develop and use this knowledge in the future. The 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.
This is the fifth year Harrow College has partnered with Raw Talent, with their business offering a number of paid internships to students who have graduated from the programme. Commenting on today's audition process, Lee McQueen said:
“I am very proud of our long-standing partnership with Harrow College. Today’s Audition Day is a testament to the knowledge, creativity and attitude of the students. They impressed throughout and it was tough choosing the 25 for the training course”.
Successful student Shakil Uddin Mohammad, said that attending the auditions was a great experience:
"Winning a place on the Employability Academy will be a great opportunity for me to improve my employability skills and boost my confident when applying for a job in the future."
Click photo below to view album from the day: