Organisations are increasingly keen to identify talent – within their organisations or outside. Matching the available talent with the right role is directly linked with increased productivity, higher profits and all-round corporate well-being. But how do you get past a candidate’s public face and well-honed interview technique to get to the truth about their character and competencies?
Assessment & Development Centre
what is an
Assessment Centre or Development Centre?
Assessment Centres
Assessment Centres are the fairest and most comprehensive way to assess people while giving them the chance to demonstrate their capabilities. We can either work with your HR professionals, or you can work with our psychologist associates, to directly test organisational skills and corporate fit.
We select the most reliable tools available to identify:
- Interpersonal Skills
- Aptitude and Ability
- Team Behaviours
- Performance Under Stress and Pressure
Development Centres
Development Centres focus on the developmental potential of your employees whilst giving them personal insights into their own strengths and weaknesses. We can work with your own HR professionals or you can work with our associate psychologists to develop and run the event. During and after the event, our team provides detailed participant feedback and support.
We seek to identify:
- High Potential
- Hidden Talent
- Intrinsic Motivators
- Team Players and Hijackers
Our Approach
VJC’s state-of-the-art 737-800 flight simulator is the ultimate assessment centre, placing the candidate at the heart of scenarios designed to test anything from an aptitude for sales to leadership ability and negotiation skills. Based on a scientific analysis of a client’s requirements, VJC’s chartered occupational therapists can create programmes to test all key business performance attributes. Rigorous aviation training techniques are used as the basis of senior recruitment, development and progression programmes that are as effective as they are different.
Handling pressure
To really see how a candidate performs under pressure, we put them into a situation they won’t have encountered before and which is so realistic that it brings out their true reactions and emotions. We place them in a virtual jet carrying 300 passengers – and see how they cope with a mid-air emergency.
Interpersonal skills
We observe individuals as they meet and mingle, undergo role-playing exercises and collaborate on a common goal as this reveals much more about them than a standard interview process.
Dealing with problems
People can behave very differently when something goes wrong, so we will throw a metaphorical spanner in the works – such as an engine failure – and assess how individuals and their teams react.
COURSE DETAILS
Assessment or Development Course
Candidates undertake a series of tests against the backdrop of an aircraft in flight, designed to examine a broad sweep of skills relevant to the client’s business. For example, a team may be tasked with flying a fully functioning aircraft, managing the entire plane between airports.
Our psychologists monitor the entire process, analysing individual and group performance and identifying core personality traits.
We offer candidates the opportunity to cope with both success and failure. Just as the aviation industry is primed to expose and learn from mistakes (Black Box Thinking), failure is purposely built into our programmes to help identify strengths and weaknesses. Failing at something that is new and difficult is not scored negatively. It is how people react to the failure that matters.
In the final assessment, abilities, personalities and behaviour are weighed against job requirements. The process can be applied to a wide range of business competencies, including leadership, sales, management, negotiation, team-building and decision-making, as well as diagnostic, presentation and communication skills.
- One or two day courses
- Maximum of eight delegates
- Comprehensive candidate analyses across specific key areas
Prices start from
£2000 per candidate
Our Training Team
Founder and Lead Trainer
Captain Andy Wilkins
With his passion for aviation training, Captain Andy Wilkins set up the Virtual Jet Centre in order to share his love of flying a large aircraft with a wider audience. With his infectious enthusiasm, Andy is the perfect role model to inspire others to follow a similar career path. He gained his extensive experience working for Thomson Airways for nearly 20 years, having flown both Airbus and Boeing Aircraft, and his flying career spans over 30 years. He started out as a Private Pilot instructor, followed by training commercial airline pilots, and latterly teaching Multi-crew training on a full motion Boeing 747-400. He is also an Examiner, and an MCCI.
Human Factors Trainer
Nicola Stevenson
Nic Steevenson graduated from the University of Manchester in 2001 with a B Eng in Aerospace Engineering. She then joined the RAF as a navigator and served on the Tornado F3 for 5 years; initially on a combat ready Squadron responsible for the Air Defence of the UK and latterly on an experimental unit test firing missiles. She was also a highly qualified instructor and taught trainee navigators undergoing the advanced phase of their fast jet training.
After Nic left the RAF she joined Flybe as their Chief Ground Instructor. Here she had oversight of all pilot ground school training and was also a Human Factors instructor. She then joined Exeter College as an Associate Lecturer teaching the Aerospace students.
Nic now enjoys working with the Virtual Jet Centre developing Human Factors Training. She is married to Sam and they have 2 young daughters to keep them busy!
Instructor
Captain Martin Holland
I learnt to fly at the famous Battle of Britain airfield, Biggin Hill, gaining the basic PPL (Private Pilot’s Licence) at the age of 20. Over the next few years I acquired more advanced flying qualifications including QFI (Flying Instructor) and CPL (Commercial). These qualifications allowed me to Instruct and fly on a freelance basis including working for several small Air Taxi and Charter firms flying a multitude of single and twin engine light aircraft (the single crew Charter flying probably being the most challenging commercial flying of all).
My Airline career started with British Island Airways in 1986 flying firstly BAC 1-11’s then MD-80 series aircraft. In 1990 I joined the recently formed Virgin Atlantic flying the B747 until the offer to participate in another new ‘start up’ venture (Airtours International) came in 1991 flying the MD-80 once again. This Company eventually merged with Thomas Cook and during the 18 years I worked there I also flew the B757/767 and finally the A320/330.
In 1996 I was granted an Authorised Examiner rating (TRE/IRE) by the CAA and in 2003 an Authorised Examiner’s Examiner rating (RETRE). I retired from Airline flying in 2008 having flown approximately 14500 hours and having trained / examined pilots for over 15 years.
Instructor
Captain Alan Stoneham
I graduated in 1976 from the British Airways College of Air Training, Hamble and as there were no flying positions available in BA I joined Dan Air in Aberdeen on the Hawker Siddeley 748 until the British Airways takeover in 1992.
Subsequently I flew the BAC 1-11, Boeing 727 and 737 aircraft, commencing my training career in 1988 on the B727. Within BA I attained the position of Training Standardisation Captain, in addition to carrying out normal line flying. Latterly I became one of the first BA Type Rating Examiner Revalidation Examiners and CRM Instructor Examiners. During my last years at BA I was also involved in Type Rating Examiner/Type Rating Instructor training for the next generation of training Captains in BA. I have accumulated over 16000 flying hours with a further 6000+ hours training in simulators the bulk of which was on the 737.
We only accept payment in GBP.