Ham & Horror? Dispelling the Myths of Assessment Centre Roleplay

CentreStage has teamed up with Sainsbury's to give graduates a taste of the assessment centre experience. The 'mock' assessment centres, the first of which was held at University College London on the 2nd of March, are part of an initiative by Sainsbury's to attract the very best candidates to its exciting fast track graduate schemes and take away the mystery surrounding what many still regard as an extremely daunting experience.

Like the majority of large organisations, Sainsbury's employs roleplay as part of its graduate assessment process because it's unrivalled as a measurer of key skills like accountability, assertiveness, negotiation, decisiveness, influencing and listening. However, because of a fear of the unknown and perhaps also its less than flattering reputation, roleplay is still a horrifying prospect for many and as such it remains many a candidate's Achilles heel.

So CentreStage is working with Sainsbury's to show that professional roleplayers are not there to terrorise candidates and that the process need not be embarassing or awkward. Instead, the role of roleplay is to provide a realistic situation in which those assessing can be given as much opportunity as possible to rest relevant performance markers.

Stephen Mulvenna of Sainsbury's, says "There is no better way to promote your brand on campus than by engaging graduates directly. Posters, brochures, websites and the like are essential mechanisms for building your brand. However, it is now increasingly important to spend budget on activities that add value for graduates and equip them with the skills that are vital to securing a graduate role in today's competitive market."

"By supporting our on-campus "roleplay" skills sessions, Centre Stage bring a sense of realism to the process and challenge graduates to think about the skills that businesses are really looking for."