Ravi DS

Hi Good people, Anyone who attended a Vetassess Technical Interview for Cooks/Chef? How's it done? What are the questions being asked? any tips?

Hi Good people, Anyone who attended a Vetassess Technical Interview for Cooks/Chef? How's it done? What are the questions being asked? any tips?

Hi Good people, Anyone who attended a Vetassess Technical Interview for Cooks/Chef? How's it done? What are the questions being asked? any tips?

BrHii bro conttact me in whats up±919886497703

Hii bro conttact me in whats up±919886497703

Before my technical interview, I was stressing so much because I couldn't find much online about the actual interview so this is the whole process in as much detail as I can remember.... This is just my experience, but I hope it helps. Remember my skills assessment was for cook. The assessment for chef might be different, but I can't really say. 1. If you look on the fact sheet on the VETASSESS website, they list all of the units that you will need to know. If you copy the code for each unit (e.g. SITXFSA001) into Google, and click on the result from training.gov.au you can find a link for a detailed description of what you will need to know for each unit. 2. For the first part, you need to send proof of your employment and qualifications (if you have them). I got a national insurance record from HMRC which shows all my employers over the last ten years and how much money I earned in each job. I got references from each employer. I sent bank statements showing the first and last pay from each employer. I also sent a CV and made sure that the responsibilities listed in each job covered each unit from the VETASSESS website. If you have contracts of employment and payslips, then send them. Any pictures of you at work are good too. Basically send all the proof you can find that you worked where you say you worked and that you did the job of a cook/chef according to the units on VETASSESS. 3. It took about two months for the first part to come back as successful. 4. About a month later I was given a date for the technical interview, and the actual interview was about another month further down the line. 5. During this time I was given a link to an online questionnaire that just covered food hygiene and cleanliness. I had to complete 11 questions in 30 minutes and you have to give proper written answers, its not just multiple choice and ticking boxes. I was asked all of these questions again in the interview. 6. The technical interview lasted about two hours. You go up to a migration agency office in London and they sit you in a room on your own with a computer and an Australian assessor asks you the questions over Skype. The questions are also shown on the computer screen in a Powerpoint style presentation. In the technical interview, the assessor will ask you questions covering each of the units so you need to make sure you know them all. There were a couple of bits that I haven't done much of like making cakes and bread. I bought an NVQ level 2 course book and did loads of revision on the things I wasn't sure about. The questions will relate to your previous jobs so they will ask you things like "give me some examples of starters from your menu". They will then pick a starter and ask you to explain how you prepare it. They don't just pick a random dish and ask you to explain how you make it because you might never have made it before. They ask lots of questions on food hygiene, cross contamination, fridge temperatures, storage, checking deliveries etc. There was also a few questions on dietary requirements and substituting ingredients for gluten free etc. I was nervous but the assessor was really friendly and kind. I got the impression that he wanted me to pass and with a couple of things I wasn't too confident on, he kind of led me to the right answer so he could tick the box for that unit. I did know the answer, my mind just went blank a couple of times due to nerves but he helped me relax and find the right answer. If you know your job you won't have a problem, most of the questions are really simple. On cakes, all he asked me to do was name five different types of cake and that was it. The most detailed questions were about hygiene, health and safety, all types of kitchen equipment and asking you to explain how you made dishes on your menu - examples of starters, mains, fish, meat, veggie, stocks, soups and desserts, so it is all stuff you should know as you are making them at work anyway. They don't ask for measurements of recipes etc, its more about the methods that you use. I spent way to long memorising exact quantities of ingredients for cakes and bread etc. At the end of the interview, they don't tell you the result, but the assessor called me "chef" and said "maybe we'll cross paths in Australia one day" so that was a bit of a clue. 7. The successful result came about two weeks later. I'm using a MARA registered migration agent, and with the first part he was a great help in checking all my evidence so that I was sure it would be enough. If you can afford it, I would definitely recommend using one as it would have been much more stressful without his guidance. The guy I use doesn't post on this forum but there are some agents with good reputations who do, such as Richard Gregan who posted above. The book that I used is called Professional Chef Level 2 (2nd edition) by Gary Hunter and Terry Tinton. It is expensive but it literally covers each unit of competency almost word for word so everything you need to know will be in there. It's good to make sure your knowledge is fresh on things you haven't done for a while. That's pretty much all I can remember about the skills assessment. All I can say is, you can't send too much evidence so spend time making sure you submit as much as possible and spend as much time as you can thinking about everything you've done in your career and research everything you're not sure about. I could have passed the interview with much less preparation, but it's good to go in feeling as confident as you can