Communication Skills

Cuts to higher education funding have led to fewer university places being available for UK students. According to the Metro this morning, the cuts will result in a possible 200,000 students missing out on the opportunity to go on to higher education in the UK.

To combat this issue, some British universities are offering A level students places at their campuses overseas. Some of this year's A Level students could potentially be off to centres in China, Malaysia, the United Arab Emirates or Holland. This certainly will be strange state of affairs if UK students are forced to study overseas whilst overseas students come to the UK!

Although this initially sounds like a shocking situation to be in, and has apparently led to campaigners and the TUC voicing concerns,  it may not be as bad as it sounds. As the UK job market is so difficult for graduates nowadays, it may be time for some of them to consider working overseas. Think about the opportunities that could open up for students studying in Asia or the Middle East. They would be in a strong position to develop links with local and international businesses and create job opportunities that may not otherwise have arisen.

I discussed this article this morning with some international students who are studying at one of the universities in Northumbria and the majority of them, who are from China, Taiwan and Thailand, thought it would be a positive step to have more UK students studying in their countries. Watch this space!!

For anyone struggling to form a habit to reach a goal, a simple programme that sends reminders http://bit.ly/aJVpJv . Free sign up.

In the last two weeks I have wondered why so many firms have adopted a standard script for their staff in call centres.  I'm sure I'm not alone in feeling irritated before I even get to talk to someone having listened to endless messages about how important it is that they 'connect you to the right area'.  Hmm.

When you eventually get to talk to a person rather than a machine - after asking for a number or your name.  Do you mind if I call you ...(first name) they ask?'  Well yes I do actually, because I don't know you. Old fashioned perhaps - but I don't like it.   Equally annoying is 'How are you today?'  I have to stop myself saying "Does it matter?"  I don't actually want to discuss it with a complete stranger.

Last week I was trying to get a dongle I had bought activated.  The nice young woman wanted to ask me all sorts of things such as 'Was I married?'  I'm sorry, but what does this have to do with activating a dongle that I had already paid for? Barely concealing my irritation she continued to speak to the standard script.  



My experience is hardly unique and although I have examples of excellent customer service, too many times it is mediocre at best.   I think firms should review their training for front line staff and how they choose to communicate with their customers and see how it can be improved. Yes money is tight and for some organisations, training won't be seen as a priority, but in these difficult economic times, it could make a considerable difference to your business.

The rights and wrongs of using structured interviews to fill a job vacancy have recently been discussed in a number of articles and forums on professional websites including the CIPD's. It's interesting to see the contrasting viewpoints. 

There are those who are clearly in favour of using a structured approach, believing that it makes the process fairer and those against it, believing structured interviews are inhibiting and not the best way to find out about a candidate. 

The different views seem to be  split about 50/50.  Those working in the public sector are mostly in favour of structured interviews where questions are planned before hand and the same questions are put to all the candidates. On the other hand, those in the private sector mostly favour unstructured interviews,  reasoning that this unformal approach allows the flexibility to find out more relevant information about the candidate. 

Having worked in the public sector for most of my working life, I favour the structured approach.  It shouldn't be inhibiting, because it's perfectly acceptable to ask  extension questions - which of course will be different depending on the responses of different candidates. Clearly some organisations have managed  well using an unstructured approach and want to continue to use it.  However, for anyone who has had little opportunity to develop the necessary interviewing skills for this less formal approach they could easily find themselves in trouble. More often than not candidates will have the opportunity to talk to each other and if they are later choose to challenge a decision, suspecting that the process has not been fair - the panel members could find themselves accused of discrimination. Is it worth the risk?  In my view no - but then I have never found the structured approach inhibiting and on the couple of occasions when my decisions have been challenged an independent assessor was able to confirm that the process was entirely fair.  

Which approach do you favour?

A good friend of mine, who is a committed and experienced ESOL lecturer, was telling me the other day that she is particularly concerned about one of her students. Despite this student being one of the first to join the class, she was rapidly falling behind the other students, even those who joined the class much later. I asked all the questions I could think of:

• "Is she committed?" ("Yes"), 
• "Does she attend regularly?" ("Yes, she hasn't missed a single class"),
• "Does she complete any homework she is given?" ("Yes, always" )  and so on...

When I had asked as many questions as I could think of and we agreed that the student was keen and appeared to be doing everything she could to learn, so I asked a final question:

The look on my friend's face was a picture "Why should I change anything?" she asked, with a hint of hostility.  Well it was just a question!  


You see, I think it's easy to think that the problem is the student.  If there is an issue in the way the student is learning, perhaps it's worth reviewing the way she is expected to learn. This means looking at verbal and written communication methods.  Perhaps her current methods just don't suit the needs of this particular learner.  I'm not saying I'm right, but I believe it's always worth looking at.  After all if you've tried everything else you can think of - why not try something new?