Passwerk/TRplus: two open house days

Open house Berchem

On 1 April, we opened our doors to the general public again. This time we were focused mainly on candidates, future Passwerk/TRplus employees and organisations that refer candidates to us. Why on 1 April? Not just because it is the funniest day of the year, but mainly because 2 April is World Autism Awareness Day and we think that is the perfect moment to put our activities and our target group in the spotlight.

In just a few years, we as an organisation have grown enormously, not just in number of employees but also regarding ethnicity and what we can offer. So it was time to present our new activities to the general public. On the one hand, our visitors could get acquainted with our core business software testing, for which we received help from our consultant Geert and our technical trainer Patrick. They enthusiastically introduced the visitors to the wonderful world of software testing. They demonstrated what a software tester does in practice and did this so vividly that every visitor got a very clear idea of what the job entails.

Visitors could register for various sessions, each of them explaining a different part of our organisation. The whole thing was organised by our entire team of job coaches, with each of them presenting their area of expertise. Those present not only got to know the daily activities of Passwerk, but also of TRplus and G4S. Our recruitment and selection process, job coaching and the average trajectory of a new consultant in every department were all highlighted.

In addition to offering information about our activities, we found it important that our visitors would learn more about the autism spectrum. To do this, we developed an interactive workshop in which the candidates could get a good understanding of the spectrum through a number of tasks.

The public was very diverse and high in numbers. In addition to informative content, we also treated them to a drink and a snack. This made it possible, in addition to the info session, for them to get to know our team and activities in a more informal way. That the open house was a success could be deducted not only from the many visitors and the pleasant chats we had, but also from the number of new applications we received afterwards via our application link.

Open house Roeselare

On 1 April we also opened the doors of our office in Roeselare. Thanks to the strong winds, our flags waved enthusiastically and the invitees hurried to get inside. In addition to a drink and a snack, we offered our visitors a number of info sessions: Passwerk, autism spectrum and TRplus. People could also witness the ongoing testing done by our consultant Gregory, with an explanation from Jürgen from M2Q.

An unfortunate snow flurry meant some visitors arrived a little late. Because of this, the first info session about Passwerk and software testing, held by our colleague Tim, started a bit later than scheduled. After the visitors had been informed about the origins and concept of Passwerk, it was time for information about the autism spectrum by our colleague Elisabet. At the AutismExperienceCircuit, visitors could experience first-hand what the emotional world of someone with autism looks like. It’s not easy to listen to a joke while simultaneously balancing on a wobble cushion, being bombarded with sounds and having to focus in order to get balls into the correct hole. Experiencing the challenges faced by people with an autism spectrum profile is confrontational, but there was also room for humorous moments.

The TRplus info session took place simultaneously, providing a good overview of the (ever increasing) scale of possibilities at TRplus. In addition to development, business intelligence (SAS and Power BI) and X-Ray Screening (G4S), we also put our newest activity in the spotlight, namely that of 'SOC analyst'. This concerns, among other things, monitoring and combating threats in the entire IT infrastructure. The new activity generated lots of interest and questions.

After the info sessions, we chatted over a final snack and a drink and we were happy to know that our visitors would return to their homes with a thorough knowledge of our activities. We, the job coaches, also went home with a sense of fulfilment, and this on the eve of World Autism Awareness Day!