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Learndirect succeeds by ’phone

22 February 2007

Guidance with training and employment opportunities delivered over the telephone can be as good as the best face-to-face practice and can suit some people better, according to a comprehensive evaluation of a learndirect pilot published today.

The pilot learndirect guidance service received over 46,000 calls between January and July 2006. Approximately 14,000 calls involved the client and advisor working together to develop a plan which outlined a series of actions to enable the caller to achieve their work or learning goals. The pilots reached clients new to guidance (75 per cent of users had not used careers guidance since leaving school), and serves a different client group to existing advice and guidance provision.

High user satisfaction

The evaluation found that learndirect telephone guidance is in many instances as good as the best face-to-face practice. Fifty-two per cent of a sample of calls were graded ‘good’ or ‘excellent’ and only nine per cent scored as flawed or poor. Given that the trial is still in its early stages this result is encouraging. Nevertheless, some areas for staff development or minor changes to procedures that could increase the proportion of good and excellent calls were identified. Many of which, as a result of the IES/ NICEC evaluation, learndirect are now implementing.

User satisfaction was high, with 86 per cent of callers agreeing that the overall quality of the service was good. Callers to learndirect reported a range of positive changes to their work and learning situations as a result of their call(s), as well as changes in motivation and attitudes to work and learning. For example, thirty per cent of respondents reported that they had either taken part in a training course, enrolled on a training course or were working towards a qualification since their call. Overall, 52 per cent of callers indicated that learndirect had been a significant, or quite a big, influence in helping them to make decisions about their career.

The study

The learndirect guidance service was comprehensively evaluated by IES and NICEC, based on a scored quality analysis of 100 calls to the service, a survey of 1,000 callers, interviews with learndirect advisors, and analysis of management and financial information.

Further information

For further press information about this study and similar work within IES, or press review copies of the report, contact Andy Davidson at IES, on 01273 678322.

An Evaluation of the UfI/learndirect Telephone Guidance Trial, Page R, Newton B, Hawthorn R, Hunt W, Hillage J. DfES Research Report 833, February 2007

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