Short Listing Applicants

The proportion of initial applicants to be short-listed for interview clearly depends on the number who have applied, and on the time available for interviewing them. If at all possible, all apparently serious applicants should be offered an interview, and it should not be too difficult to exclude those who do not qualify because:

· Their forms are so incoherently filled in as to indicate that they could not handle the training.

· They are clearly not qualified, because they have no business ideas, are still at school or college, or for other reasons depending on the specific group of women for whom the training has been designed.

· They have obviously taken no trouble with the form, and are not serious applicants.

Those that have been selected for interview should be informed at once, by personal letter and by advertisement. The date and place of the interview should have been included in the initial information sent to prospective applicants, but it should be repeated in the letters of invitation.

Unsuccessful applicants should also be informed, by individual letter, together with a reference to a more suitable form of training or at least some general information about facilities which are available to those wanting to start or improve their own businesses.