Recent Experience- Centigrade Interviews

I found the centigrade interviews to be useful in a number of ways. It was firstly interesting to have experience of trying to take part in an interview using the results of a matching technique. I found this particularly difficult as I felt that a great amount of time was spent beforehand trying to reassure the pupil that what was in the centigrade results wasn’t something that they would have to stick to, that these results were what was produced at a particular moment in time, that the results were a guide to possible career routes- it seemed that I was almost talking down the whole centigrade process at times.
I felt that the whole centigrade booklet could leave the pupils with a huge burden on their shoulders; if they didn’t choose something that was reported as being a ‘good match’ for them, would it be in the back of their minds that they wouldn’t be good at the route they eventually choose, I personally didn’t like the defectiveness of the report.

In both my interviews I felt that the individuals had answered the questions in the survey deliberately to have the outcomes that they wanted. In my first interview, the pupil was very quiet and almost, it seemed, completely disinterested in talking about his career choices (this was almost commented on by Pete).
When I delved further into family aspirations, the outcomes of his report seemed to relay what his parents wanted him to do rather than what he wanted to do. They had suggested that he do medicine as they thought it was a good career and that he was good at sciences, however, although his report only detailed matches to science subjects, when we discussed them he was un-emotive about these choices and also suggested that he would hate to be a doctor…..how did his results match him to a Medical Course when personally he suggests he would hate to be a doctor….is he answering the questions as if his parents will see the results!
He recognised that he was good at sciences but he had no interest there, in fact I feel now, with hindsight, that he was so disinterested in talking about his career choice as the centigrade results may have mirrored what his parents where already doing- forcing him into something he didn’t want to do!

I feel that maybe the school careers service could be doing more to address the issue of trying to really find out what interests you. This could happen through work placements and trials, why is it that pupils only have the chance of 1 placement within a working environment in their whole secondary school education; surely there is room for this to happen more often. This would allow children to, at least, have some confidence in knowing what areas of the working world they do and don’t like.
This may also lead to confidence in which to answer these surveys more openly and honestly as they would have genuine experience at their backs and may also help someone like the boy I interviewed to have the confidence to say to his parents ‘no I don’t want to be a doctor- I experienced something at school that I much prefer’-they would also have the confidence that he had.