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Discovering Higher and Degree Apprenticeships with UWE Bristol, get free advice >>

Assessment Centre

Hi,

I got an assessment centre coming up in 3 weeks, and I wanted to ask a few questions.



1.

What is the whole purpose of an assessment centre?

2.

Why is it for a whole day?

3.

Why can't they just do an interview and presentation alone? They do an interview and presentation at the assessment centre

4.

What are the group exercises like?

5.

How do you succeed and get hired?




Would really appreciate it if you could give me some tips.
Reply 1
Avatar for moutonfou
moutonfou
14
The idea is to get a more rounded view of who would be best for the job than you can get in an interview. Problems with interviews include:

- People get nervous in interviews even though they may be entirely capable
- People can lie in interviews - anybody can claim they are a great team player - what evidence does an interviewer have to believe you?

Assessment centres often feature tasks which 'simulate' the role itself, such as group discussions, email tasks, written tasks, proritisation tasks, etc. So an interviewer isn't reliant on your own account of whether you are a team player, organised, a good communicator etc - they can physically watch you do it.

Before an assessment centre I am always quite resentful of the format because it's so much more stressful and requires more preparation than just an interview alone, but afterwards I actually leave feeling that I've been very fairly assessed. The important thing to remember is that they are designed to be challenging and everybody there is in the same position as you.

As regards how to succeed, any quick Google search for 'assessment centre tips', 'group discussion tips', 'presentation tips' etc will give a plethora of links from graduate sites with lots of information on how to succeed. Good luck.

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