Fleur Sexton, Deputy Lieutenant West Midlands and Managing Director of PET-Xi – one of the most hard-hitting and dynamic training providers in the UK with a reputation for success with the hardest to reach – discusses utilising AI to help young people and job seekers master interview technique.
The new Government’s proposals for revamping young people’s careers guidance and access to work experience, is a long overdue step in the right direction. Access to quality careers guidance, raises aspirations, and helps young people to make choices and realise their potential. Without viewing the full picture of the world of work, young people are blinkered to opportunities, and without the appropriate skills and experience, they cannot steer themselves along the pathway to a successful and fulfilling career.
Research shows that 33% of employers are unable to recruit careers advisers (Careers England 2022) which highlights the challenges faced by schools and colleges required to provide independent personal guidance for students, delivered by a qualified careers adviser. So right now, how can we help support young people to develop the skills necessary to secure a job when they leave school? AI is part of the solution.
After the nationwide adoption of the Gatsby Benchmarks in 2018, to help assess pupils employability skills, the UK workplace underwent a seismic shift with the onslaught of the pandemic, and the greatest changes to the world of work in a generation. These changes continue to have a knock on effect for school’s careers programmes.
Alongside the challenge of trying to direct time in the school day away from academics and Covid catchup, there are issues of safeguarding, transport etc, and work experience has slipped further down the list of priorities.
Flexible working hours and employers working from home, make the logistics of work experience more complex, creating less opportunity for many students. Organising mock interviews, providing opportunities to develop and hone skills and increase confidence, has become another hurdle on the careers pathway.
So how can we overcome these barriers – ‘Arfan’ our AI careers tutor – an incredibly useful tool to help support students to develop these skills. For many young people, communicating with a screen has become second nature, in fact, some feel more at ease in a digital world.
Since its introduction, we have received very positive feedback from both younger and older job seekers. Arfan is non-judgemental and has as much time as needed – it isn’t on a tight schedule with a queue of other candidates to interview. It has the capacity to be the sounding board for any type of job – input the specifications and the students can interview for any job – from a barista to a barrister.
Arfan provides instant feedback on improvements that the interviewee can make to their responses. If mistakes are made, or answers are uncertain or students are tongue tied, there’s no embarrassment, it just comes back with the suggestions of what a good answer would look like. Arfan always provides positive feedback, and students are encouraged to develop longer and more complex answers.
Often, confidence building is the greatest struggle. Not just for young people, but also with older learners who have been out of the workplace for a while, who may consider they do not have many past positions or skills to share. As responses are worked on, overlooked skills often come into view, for example, someone looking after the household or caring for a family member, will have developed many useful soft-skills – time management and planning, budgeting, decision making etc.
The Gatsby Benchmarks recognise that:
‘Good career guidance is a necessity for social mobility: those young people without significant social capital or home support to draw upon, have the most to gain from a strong career guidance system.’
Arfan provides support that is authentic, contextualised and personalised. It is not a teacher and cannot take their place, but it can provide a useful part of the jigsaw, to help job seekers who lack confidence, and are unsure of their talents and future plans.