Assessment day
on Rachael's VSO experience (Malawi), 18/Mar/2010 09:24, 34 days ago
Ok so assessment day. Possibly one of the weirdest days I’ve ever done. So I got to the VSO office in London at about 8:30 and was given a sticker with my name on and shown the tea and coffee, for those that know me this doesn’t matter as I don’t drink tea or coffee much.So there were six of us sat around two tables, no offense if the others read this but I was surprised that the majority of the group were a lot older than I expected, I was thinking I’d be one of the oldest people at assessment day but I wasn’t anywhere near the oldest. So we handed in all of our CRB forms and the evidence for them, then we sat around chatting and getting to know each other. The day probably really got going around 9:30, we started off doing a little ice breaker. After that we did a team ‘production line’ task, it was all about making notebooks. The kind of task where you talk about it for 5mins then do it for 3mins then evaluate it and see if you can improve upon it and reduce your waste and improve your productivity then you just keep repeating it. We spent about an hour doing this as a group.After this we were given a little scenario to work on something along the lines of what would you do if the accommodation you are supposed to live in isn’t ready and there are like 6 options and you just have to rationalise the decision you made. Whilst we were doing this we all had our individual interviews. They lasted about an hour and asked a lot of questions about spending time in different cultures, what’s the least you could survive with(i.e. no running water ect), they asked me when I loose my temper (which I don’t really) and what makes me angry, how would I deal with that, whether my family are supportive ect ect. They wanted loads of examples for everything which I found reasonably easy but then as a nurse I work with peoplefrom other cultures and make life changing decisions all the time.So once the interviews were all done we had lunch and had a talk from a member of the fundraising team who talked to us about VSO’s expectation that we all raise £900. It won’t stop us going if we haven’t but they expect us to do it. I guess it make sense it’s a voluntary organisation so they need money to keep it going. After that we sat down as a group and discussed our choices for the scenario and then as a groupwe had to make a decision, then we were asked why we either stuck with our original choice or swapped to another choice. After that we had to do a reflection about us and how we felt about the day. I really liked meeting all of the group I was with everyone was so lovely and it was a really nice wayto spend the day.Once we’d all presented these and discussed them and answered questions. One of the people from VSO talked to us about where we go from here. If I am successful then we have to do 3 weekend sessions all about becoming a volunteer and how to make the most of working with limited supplies. Then we are given a VPA who will discuss placement opportunities with us.The worst thing is that they said they should have made a decision by the ends of the day but they’ll let us know in writing in 7 working days!!!! That’s forever away. Oh well, when I know you’ll know!!!