The second instalment in our recruitment series, our member staff describes her experience of the next stage of applying for a job with Xplore...The Selection Day and Training Week.
"A few days after my application, I received an email from
Xplore, thanking me for my submission and asking if I could come to the UK
for their selection day. I was planning to visit some friends in London anyway
so that worked out perfectly!
A few weeks later, I flew into London
Stansted and started my journey to Walnutree Manor; the manor house where selection days take place. Walnutree Manor is a beautiful manor house and is actually a listed building! I could almost still see the school children
running around on the property 100 years ago just because it all looks so
authentic.
The selection day was great fun and very
interesting. We did different team building and group activities to see how we
interact with others in terms of social, leadership and personal
skills. I found that I learnt a lot about myself, for example, when we were set tasks, to begin with, I wait a little, listening to the ideas of others first but after a while I got really involved and
help to successfully finish the assignment.
I really enjoyed selection day and was excited to meet so many people from all over the world. Furthermore, it was very nice to meet staff from the Xplore Head Office. It made me feel comfortable to see how they work and strengthened my wish to be employed by Xplore.
I really enjoyed selection day and was excited to meet so many people from all over the world. Furthermore, it was very nice to meet staff from the Xplore Head Office. It made me feel comfortable to see how they work and strengthened my wish to be employed by Xplore.
A few days after I returned home, I got
the notification that I was successful and had been asked to work as a Camp Leader for the summer
season. I could not believe my luck. I would actually work in a summer camp in
England in one of the nicest boarding schools in the country for six weeks. I
don’t think that I have ever been as happy to start a job but with summer still a few weeks away, I had to wait until I could begin.
In the run up to training week, I had complied several
questions concerning topics such as insurance and payments. Everyone from Head Office was very friendly and happy to answer all my questions. No one was annoyed
or too busy to be concerned with me which was something I had experienced in other
companies before.
Our training week started on June 26th
running until the beginning of summer on July 4th and took place at Worksop College, one of the biggest centres Xplore operates. I was very impressed by the centre, it is a beautiful old building and
very much gives you the “Harry Potter feeling”. I was waiting to run into one
of the wizards or witches in one of the endless corridors – unfortunately, it
didn’t happen!
Training week in itself was worth the
experience. It felt a little bit like a summer camp for adults because all staff
members were doing the same activities the students would be doing during the
summer. The first night was Friday night. Everyone arrived (around 200 new staff members, just like me) and we had a general introduction from Head Office. We were allocated our rooms and given an itinerary for the week as well as health & safety
instructions. Everything was very well organised and all staff members super
friendly and helpful.
The next day started with a typical English
breakfast in the amazing dining hall (...just like in Harry Potter). Afterwards,
we were divided into our groups for the week. There were groups for 'Camp
Leaders', one for 'Teachers' and many different groups for the 'Activity Instructors'.
All my Camp Leader colleagues were super nice and at the end of the week, I felt we
were very good friends.
After a couple of initial days, two German staff members from Head Office joined training week as well. They are very experienced and the ones we would work the closest with. Our Camp Leader training consisted of different
areas. One major topic was planning and organising airport pick ups and
drop offs as well as student room allocations. Besides organising, our main job as a
Camp Leader was to take care of the children and to make sure that they would
have the summer of their life. We talked about different scenarios, for example
what we would do if a student is homesick or doesn’t find any friends. The Camp
Leader training us had been a Camp Leader before for the past few years
and told us many funny stories, giving us very helpful tips on how to handle
different situations. I really noticed that most of my fellow Camp Leaders were
studying subjects that were related to children or youth work and held a
good qualification and had experience working with children.
Our intense but fun week was over very soon, prepared for the challenge ahead, everyone left to go to their centre....our home for
the summer"
