A Guide to the Information, Advice & Guidance Service

Introduction

This document is a comprehensive guide to the services offered by the Information, Advice & Guidance Service at City College Norwich.

The Information, Advice & Guidance Service offers free impartial drop-in advice and guidance to all enquirers on accessing education and training opportunities available in the local area. Careers, counselling, financial and international advice and guidance focuses on potential and existing clients of City College Norwich.

We support and encourage clients to achieve their personal and professional learning and career goals and subscribe to make Lifelong Learning an integral part of our activities. We are committed to embedding the Skills for Life agenda and we make our clients aware of the Level 2 and Level 3 Entitlement.

The Information, Advice & Guidance Service is based at City College Norwich and our service operates to the Guidance Council Code of Principles on impartiality. The performance of our service is not measured by the number of students enrolled as a result of our work.

Information, advices and guidance services.

The Advice Shop

We offer a free, impartial, drop-in, email or telephone information, advice and guidance service on a range of local learning, training and education opportunities.

We aim to provide support and encouragement to access learning opportunities for clients’ personal and professional development in a relaxed and informal atmosphere.  On occasions where we are unable to meet clients needs we will refer them to an appropriate alternative institution or organisation.

Careers, counselling, financial and international advice and guidance is offered by appointment and drop in at certain times to any student or potential student of City College Norwich.

Careers advice and guidance is offered on a full range of careers issues including higher education courses, employment prospects, the completion of job/course application forms and the preparation of a curriculum vitae. There are also a number of computer careers guidance programs available in the Information Store A (mezzanine at the back) for which no appointment is necessary.

Links with other community organisations are very important to the work of the Advice Shop.  These links are maintained and developed by Outreach work. This includes working alongside colleagues in The Learning Shop, visiting community groups; schools liaison work, representing City College Norwich on steering groups, management committees etc (1).  Advice stands or talks to groups are co-ordinated by the IAG Team Leader.

A comprehensive range of written information is available on courses held at City College:

• Full, part-time and higher education prospectuses
• Application forms
• Individual full-time course information
• Individual part-time course information
• Information on Additional Learning Support services
• Information on crèche and nursery facilities
• Information on The Learning Shop
• Information on Complaints Procedure
• Contacts for a wide range of education and training establishments.

We aim to respond to messages and provide information within 5 working days of receiving your enquiry.

If all Advisers are busy or it is outside of our published opening hours you may have to leave us a message.

Expectations / limitations

We aim to provide a polite, friendly, helpful and knowledgeable service that complies with The Guidance Council’s Code of Principles. These Principles   are displayed in the Information Centre and copies are available on request.

We can listen to your needs, give advice and guidance on courses and present you with a range of options but we cannot choose the course for you.

We can provide detailed information on all City College Norwich courses.  Our information is both paper and computer based and in English. We can arrange for large print copies of information or for information to be translated on request. If we feel your needs are best met by other organisations we will be happy to refer you for a wider range of information or advice to other agencies.  We will also refer to our colleagues for specialist advice on international, financial or benefit matters. 

We can advocate on your behalf on any of the above issues when necessary.

Our advisers are encouraged to attend disability awareness courses including deaf awareness.  Advisers are not able to use BSL but will direct you to an appropriate service within City College Norwich.

At the time of booking a careers guidance, finance, international or counselling appointment, the Receptionist will take a contact number and the client will either be given an appointment card. 

How to contact us

Course advice and guidance

The Advice Shop is situated on the ground floor of the Norwich Building, City College, Norwich Ipswich Road, Norwich NR2 2LJ

Opening hours
Monday-Wednesday 8:30am – 6pm Thursday 8.30 – 7pm Friday 8.30 – 5pm term time
Monday – Friday 8.30 am – 5 pm out of term time (public holidays excepted).

Our opening hours are extended during late August to early September, where we open until 7pm Monday to Thursday.

You can telephone us on 01603 773773

You can email us at information@ccn.ac.uk

You can contact us via our website, go to Ask us a question under the Getting help tab.

Careers, financial and international advice and guidance interviews

Interviews are available Monday – Friday between 9am and 5pm and drop in sessions for finance advice are available daily.

Counselling Appointments

Are available at various times Monday – Friday

To make an appointment telephone 01603 773773

The Norwich Building is accessible for wheelchairs users.

Clients will be made aware of the Statement of Service by use of displays in the Advice Shop and advised that a copy can be obtained if they wish. Should printed information be requested a copy of the abridged Statement of Service will be sent to the client.

Policies

The Information, Advice & Guidance Service adheres to all City College Norwich Corporate policies including data protection, equality and diversity, child protection, disability, health and safety and the College Charter. 

Equal Opportunities

The primary purpose of the Information, Advice & Guidance Services is to extend opportunities for education and training to all members of the Community.

Disability Statement

City College has designated staff with special responsibility for students and prospective students with learning difficulties and/or disabilities.

Review of Statement of Service

The Statement of Service is reviewed by the Advice Shop staff annually or more frequently to accommodate changes required by new legislation or information received from The Guidance Council.  Last update 01.02.11

Improvement of Service

We hope you will be happy with our service.  If you experience any problems please speak to a member of the Advice Shop staff who will try to resolve your problem.

We encourage clients to comment on any aspect of our service and to add any feedback about our service into our visitors book located in the front area of the Advice Shop.

We send out questionnaires to enquirers asking for more in depth feedback on the service provided as part of our annual survey. We also run a feedback fortnight which we follow up after six months to measure the impact of our service. Results are evaluated and any improvements made accordingly.

Complaints Procedure

If you have a complaint you are unable to resolve you are encouraged to complete a Complaints Form available from the Advice Shop. Your complaint will be dealt with quickly, sensitively and fairly and you will be informed of the outcome.

Guidance Council Code of Principles

Services: What you can expect from us.

Impartiality

We provide unbiased information, advice & guidance that allows you to consider all of the options available to you

Accessibility

We are committed to making all clients aware of the services we offer and to make sure that all clients can access the service. We do this by working together to provide facilities and materials suitable for all clients in a way that does not exclude anyone from benefiting from the service.

Confidentiality

We will treat all information about our clients as strictly confidential as required by the Data Protection Act. We will not pass on any information without the written permission of the client.

Equality of Opportunity

We are committed to equality of opportunity for all our clients, and will monitor services on a regular basis to ensure that we uphold this principal in delivering our IAG service. We will provide a copy of our equal opportunities policy to any client on request.

Transparency

The information, advice & guidance process should be made clear to every client. We aim to use clear language and ensure that all clients understand what is available through the IAG service, including our roles and responsibilities.

Individual Ownership

We ensure that the information, advice & guidance we provide is focused on the needs of the individual and that the service is welcoming and responsive to their present and future needs. We encourage client feedback on our service and provide opportunities for clients to give us their opinion.

Professional

We ensure that our staff have the skills and knowledge to identify and address our clients needs. The College is committed to providing opportunities for continuing professional development to IAG staff.

Client Referral

We will refer clients within the College as appropriate and onto other agencies following prior agreement with the client.

What you can expect from us is based on Guidance Council Code of Principles, National IAG Board and the Quality Standards for Young People’s Information, Advice & Guidance (IAG) DfCSF.