Snow, snow and more snow

10 January 2010

Hi everyone

Having been snowed in at home for 3 weeks now (that will teach me not to live on the side of a mountain) I have forgotten to blog! Looking at weather and travel information on the internet every day to see if I have any chance of travelling to places I need to get to for work has really brought home to me the experience learners have when trying to find and interpret careers and progression information on-line.

Firstly which site is the best - is it updated regularly (for travel and weather that means very regularly!) and is it user friendly? (One of the train sites was a nightmare to use!)

Secondly can I understand the information (some of the weather sites left me more confused than informed)

Thirdly is the information impartial (one train company said they were very confident that they would have no delays in their services at all in this weather - ho ho!)

And finally - how can I apply the information to myself? So I have found out that it is likely to snow heavily tonight but that the trains to London are expected to run at 7 am tomorrow - so now what should I decide to do?

All these issues can be applied to any learner trying to decide what to do next - accept of course their decisions are a million time more important than mine!

Happy decision making

Chris

sandirob
Joined: 15/9/2008
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The importance of progression routes

I haven't had time to read Anthony's article yet but Chris's analogy to trains and travel does raise the importance for young people of understanding the progression routes that are available to them and the various ways in which they can reach their destinations. With the introduction of the 14-19 reforms and the flexibility of the new curriculum, we have a responsibility to ensure that that information is available and easily understandable for them.

Just as rail timetables have to be kept up to date and to echo David's point - so must our 14-19 Area Prospectuses - can that be our resolution for 2010?

Sandi

davidritchie
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Joined: 2/2/2009
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Decision Making - Snow - Customer Service

Did you hear on the radio that John Lewis for the 5th year running (I think it was 5 years) is top of the tops in respect of customer service! Interestingly two on line providers Amazon and Play can second and third.

Not a railway company or airline to be seen!! What a surprise!

So a question could be; how do we encourage and support on line providers of CEIAG to model Amazon and Play for customer service excellence? A useful challenge for the market in "raw CEIAG"!!

A.Barnes
Joined: 17/12/2008
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Career resilience

Hi Chris

Having been frustrated by the snow in my attempts to get to Sheffield today, I thought I'd pen a quick reply! I notice that all the help you got with your travel decisions was essentially optimistic, e.g. it's snowing now but the trains will be running on time tomorrow! As IAG practitioners, we have to be very careful about implying that the decision the young person is about to make will guarantee their career happiness. Choose this Diploma or that Apprenticeship and you'll never experience boredom or frustration again! That's why I think we should be teaching much more about career resilience as a career skill. The Canadians have done a lot on this, if readers are interested (http://www.millenniumscholarships.ca/images/Publications/Resilience_2007-EN.pdf

Hope to see you in York next week (snow permitting!)

C.Thomas
Joined: 17/12/2008
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Thanks Anthony - that is a

Thanks Anthony - that is a very good point - guess I am pretty determined to get places too which isn't always the case with people's career thinking! Will read the Canadian article on my (optimist that I am) train to London on Monday!!

Chris

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