Many of our Preview and OASIS schools now use the COA Interviewing service. Teams of independent careers advisers carry out the handing over of workbooks to pupils within schools and with minimum disruption to the school teaching timetable. An increasing number of Centigrade schools are opting for this service.

After one-to-one interviews pupils should be fully capable of explaining their workbooks to their parents, and be aware of the key issues raised.

The advantages are

• Minimum disruption to individual classes. On average, no more than one class per pupil is interrupted. The school arranges the interview schedule to suit its own timetable requirements.
• Whenever possible, all pupils are interviewed on the same day, which achieves an intensified sense of a 'shared' occasion.
• It avoids the interviewing stretching over many weeks, as can sometimes happen.
• Careers advisory staff are freed to use their available time in the most effective way, without interrupting their teaching programmes.
• It ensures that pupils fully understand the nature of their careers workbooks, how they should be interpreted, and how to achieve maximum benefit from them.
• It encourages a more informed attitude towards the initial selection of sixth form subjects. (School staff can take a key role in these tasks - later on.)
• All interviewers have considerable experience in providing careers advice for Years 11 and 12.