Once again, RAPA and the Luisenburg-Gymnasium Wunsiedel organize the project “Applicant Training”. Due to the pandemic, it takes place virtually for the first time. The students get to know the complete selection process from A-Z. At the end, exciting internships with attractive compensation await the best participants.
After a year’s break, RAPA and Luisenburg-Gymnasium Wunsiedel once again launched the joint “Applicant Training” project. For the students in grades 9b and 9c of the economics branch, this is an important part of their career orientation, which is a central and fixed point of reference in school life at LuGy. RAPA supports them with a practical insight and helpful tips and tricks.
As part of the company’s internal career orientation activities, RAPA has developed a supportive, modular training program to prepare the high school students for their upcoming application phase for internships, apprenticeships and the like. The program covers the topics “application portfolio”, “assessment center” and “job interview”, each followed by individual feedback for the participants. This year, for the first time, the sessions, which usually alternate between school and company, will be held virtually. The aim of the project is to increase the young people’s ability to complete vocational training and to promote their personal development.
The school-year-long project kicked off back in November 2020, with Stephanie Sonntag, deputy department head of HR development, opening the project with a digital kick-off event and a presentation on how to create the perfect application documents. For example, she talked about the completeness of the documents, the application process and typical mistakes in the application photo. Stephanie Sonntag also repeatedly chatted out of the sewing box, for example, she presented positive and negative examples of cover letters. Furthermore, the students were given a list of potential internships at RAPA, sorted by occupational fields. Then they were asked to choose a profession that they are interested in or that would suit them and, as they had previously learned, to prepare a meaningful application.
In the next step, the nearly 40 students were coached via video conference on how to conduct job interviews and, together with selected representatives of RAPA, they were intensively prepared for the assessment center that followed in the project. This part of the selection process mostly consists of various individual and group tasks that have to be solved under time pressure and observation. Instead of proving their manual skills in small groups, the virtual version primarily tested the students’ ingenuity, self-presentation and digital skills, for example in presentation or attention span tasks. It was very informative that not only the result achieved counts, but much more attention is paid to how the applicant shows and behaves during the test or the entire application phase. The participants also received individual and personal feedback on each part of the project so that they could better reflect on their own performance and avoid mistakes in the future.
In the final phase of the job application training at Luisenburg-Gymnasium Wunsiedel, company representatives and students will now meet in person for the first time on June 30, 2021, and put what they have learned into practice in real job interviews. The best students of the entire project will then be offered the chance to complete a paid internship in their chosen profession during the school vacations. RAPA also offers all other interested students the opportunity to get a taste of work life and complete an unpaid student internship. Applications are always welcome!
The feedback from students and teachers so far make it clear that the offer has been very well received, is seen by the students as a valuable experience, and is a good support for the upcoming application phase for an internship or the dream job. The challenges of digital implementation in particular show how important flexibility is in career guidance.
After all, even after Corona, RAPA’s commitment to and establishment of virtual application processes will become a permanent feature. Not least because time and space limitations can be overcome in this way. However, personal contact is by no means to be replaced, but rather supplemented by a further opportunity to get to know each other.