Wonder if the STW masses can help? I’m interviewing 4 apprentices next week for the position of Service Desk Analyst. Although they will be working in the IT dept the role is more customer service focussed. With this in mind, can anyone recommend any scenario type questions I can ask them? They are all 16 BTW so not exactly brimming with experience.

We role-play (at all levels of hire, not just apprentice). Do an awkward caller scenario and see how they react. Whether they get the right answer to the scenario’s problem is largely immaterial (as that can be solved with a knowledge-base), it’s all about seeing how they handle it ‘live’ rather than answering a dry question.

I’d have thought role play to see how the deal with:

Difficult customers/calls
Angry calls/customers
People who have no idea.

They’re 16? I think I’d be more concerned whether they can get up and get to work on time! Providing they have at least a little confidence and can construct sentences then anything else can be taught can’t it?? 🙂

Task them with making a cup of tea and mark them on a) whether they ask you how you like it and then b) if they do, how close to the perfect cuppa do they get.

Shows communication skills and attention to detail. Plus you get decent cups of tea made for you…

am i alone in remembering when an apprenticeship like i did was a skill base for engineering, not a name attached to a office junior type task.

Ask them if they have the commitment to stay a so called apprentice for 4 years at low pay, to learn a skill and way of problem solving all us trades have done, or is it a 6 month cheap labour training scheme with not much training.