The Farlington Apprentice
Farlington Apprentice is an annual competition run by Farlington School for Girls for their Year 10 pupils who are aged 14 and 15 years old.
Over the 5 days six pupils have to perform a range of tasks set by businesses in the community to determine which one of them will be crowned the winner, or in the words of Sir Alan, “hired”!!
Each day of the week one girl from the original six must be eliminated.
Monday’s challenge is run by the West Sussex County Times, Tuesday’s by different local organisations, Wednesday’s by Permanent Solutions Direct and Harris Lord, Thursday’s by Radio Mercury and on the final day the two remaining girls are given a business project to work on and present their ideas to a panel of judges, including the business volunteers from the preceding days. The two finalists are allowed to choose their team members to assist on the final task from their previously eliminated colleagues.
Permanent Solutions Directs’ designated day is the Wednesday and involves Lisa Jarvis MD of Permanent Solutions Direct and Justine Harris Joint MD of Harris Lord in Horsham designing an assessment centre style day for the four remaining girls. This consists of writing CVs, a team building session where we challenge them to complete and practical task (previous examples include building a structure at least 50cm tall, which could hold a small bottle of water with only a West Sussex County Times, a ball of string and some sticky tape) writing a letter asking for work experience to Radio Mercury, completing a listening and memory test, a rigorous competency style interview to a panel, a computer assessment and an in-depth personality profiling exercise, aimed at assisting with career choices, which was provided free of charge by Colin Golding, MD of Goldisc Training.
“I am delighted to be part of the whole Farlington Apprentice experience and each year have been thoroughly impressed by the determination, commitment and focus that the finalists demonstrate – not to mention the high standard of CV’s they produce and the manner in which they conduct themselves during structured, competency based interviews!” Lisa Jarvis, Permanent Solutions Direct.
“The Farlington Apprentice was an inspired idea by Sara Greer, Marketing Director of Farlington. The feedback from the girls and parents of the girls was incredibly positive.
The girls are put through rigorous challenges, which a lot of business people would find difficult, frankly all the judges on the final day were really impressed, we have to keep reminding ourselves that these girls are only 15. An incredible amount of work goes into the week; it is a fantastic project to be involved in and will have a lasting impact on all the girls that take part.” Justine Harris, Harris Lord Recruitment, Horsham.