Statement of Service_

How can The Careers Group, University of London help you?
This statement briefly outlines the facilities and services available to you as student and graduate clients of The Careers Group. Contact details for all of The Careers Group offices can be found here

Introduction

The Careers Group's mission is to enable you to maintain job satisfaction throughout your working life. We provide products and services that are quality assured and they aim to:

• Help you to develop, implement and maintain career management skills
• Help organisations, institutions and academic staff to help you to develop these skills
• Help employers recruit, retain and develop employees

The Careers Group operates throughout the University of London and beyond, from central offices in Bloomsbury, Central London, with eight other full services based at other colleges or nearby. The central offices house C2, The Graduate Careers Consultancy and a central library and research facility.

All of the larger colleges of the University of London, with the exception of Imperial College and The London School of Economics, are members of the The Careers Group confederation. St Mary's University College, Twickenham is also a member of The Careers Group. Contact details for all the The Careers Group offices are available here

You can use the services if you are:

• a current full-time student of these colleges
• a part-time student of these colleges following a college-accredited degree or post-graduate programme of study lasting at least one academic year
• a graduate of these colleges who is a current member of The Careers Group's GradClub
• a graduate from another college or university (for C2 only) - fees apply
• a graduate of a subscribing college of The Careers Group who is not a member of The Careers Group's GradClub - fees apply

Most of our services are free to current students. Where there is a charge (e.g. for photocopying, for the more elaborate psychometric tests or for attendance at some courses) this is made clear in advance. New graduates from our subscribing colleges are still entitled to use their college facilities but on payment of the appropriate fees. They are encouraged to join GradClub, which entitles them to discounted fees for the first two years after graduation. Details are given in the GradClub leaflet which you can pick up in any of our Careers Services or by viewing the GradClub website. Graduates of other colleges or universities should see below for details of C2.

Our Central Services units provide support for centrally organised activities (fairs, vacancies, central courses and events, publications, consultancy.) Full details are given in The Guide, on the web site and in college literature.

What we offer you - if you are a student from one of our subscribing colleges or graduate member of GradClub

Facilities will vary very slightly at each site but will always include:

• a library containing up-to-date information about employers in the UK (hard copy or web links); occupational information and ideas for graduates of every discipline (usually with an appropriate emphasis on the subjects taught at the individual College); a Work Window notice board with details of temporary, part-time and vacation jobs; current vacancies; literature on job-seeking skills ("How to write your CV", "How to succeed at interview"); university prospectuses (hard copy or web links) for post-graduate study in the UK and, information on specialist professional training;
• access to Alert, an elective service matching your on-line details to specific vacancies;
• access to the internet and to extensive web-based information including Prospects Planner and The Careers Group Online Careers Library
• access to employers' web sites, videos and DVDs.

Most information is produced in English. Our aim is to make your visit as easy as possible so please ask for any special help you need to make best use of our resources. If you require information in a particular format (e.g. on audiotape or in large print), please let us know in advance. Most of our buildings are wheelchair/pushchair accessible. If you have any concerns about access to our information or premises, don't hesitate to get in contact with us in advance of your visit.

The College Services and the Specialist Institutions Careers Service (which serves University of London colleges and institutes too small to warrant on-site provision) also provide:

• one-to-one guidance discussions with professional careers advisers as 10-15 minute "quick query" (short guidance) or longer guidance sessions. seminars, workshops and courses to support job-seeking skills, help you to make career choices or to introduce particular professional fields;
  
• careers talks given as part of your College induction, or within your academic department, either targeted at particular student groups (Masters or PhD for example) or available to all comers;
  
• personality questionnaires and aptitude tests, practice interviews, access to visits and presentations by employers which provide useful insight into current recruitment issues;
  
• access to courses such as Business Awareness for Management, The City Course, Getting into Development, Starting Your Own Business;
  
• access to important annual careers fairs (for example, these presently include: specialist events, general careers information events and sector specific recruitment fairs);
  
• informed referral to other specialist agencies within or outside the college or University.

What we offer you - if you are a graduate from a college which does not subscribe to The Careers Group or a graduate who is not a member of GradClub

C2, The Graduate Careers Consultancy, offers a range of services to graduates of any university at any stage of their career. Full details of services and charges are given in the leaflet C2 website. Services include access to group or one-to-one information, advice and guidance, interview preparation, CV workshops, personality questionnaires and aptitude tests, practice interviews, access to the The Careers Group central library and IT resources.

What Should You Expect?

All staff in The Careers Group will:

• work to the Matrix Quality Standards framework for information, advice and guidance
  
• abide by the Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services (AGCAS) Code of Practice which guarantees a service which is impartial, confidential, transparent, accessible;
  
• operate within the Principles of Coherent IAG Service Delivery which cover information, advice and guidance services to adults nationally;
  
• operate within the Code of Practice on Career Education, Information and Guidance (CEIG) of the body created by government to monitor standards in universities: the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA);
  
• follow the AGCAS and University Equal Opportunities policies.

Whether your main contact is with your College Service or with the C2, you will meet staff who are approachable, experienced, trained, and committed to helping you. You are welcome to ask for further details about how we ensure our staff are competent. You will receive unbiased information and impartial, realistic advice in a Service that is confidential, transparent, accessible and geared to your individual needs and circumstances.

Career guidance is an ongoing process that helps you to explore your options and make choices. Our approach to guidance means that you can gain the skills and insights needed to manage your own career. By making use of the services and expertise available, you will be better able to understand your capabilities, become better informed about the career choices open to you and be better equipped to take the next steps towards rewarding and satisfying careers.

Using the Service

Core opening times are available by clicking here for links to each College Careers Service or by calling the Careers Service you wish to visit. Local variants are displayed locally and are well publicised in the literature and on the web site. While the Service is open, you may (as appropriate) consult, borrow or take away the literature, obtain expert help to track down other information, use the IT resources, book a place in a skills workshop or at a talk, and arrange to see a Careers Adviser. You will usually be able to see someone within two working days if your concerns can be resolved in a 10-minute 'short guidance' session though this will vary at busy times of year; 'long guidance' and practice interviews are booked some days in advance.

As a responsible user of the service, you will be expected to honour all bookings for long guidance interviews, workshops, talks etc; bring anything you need to meetings; treat resources with care; complete a DLHE (Destinations of Leavers of Higher Education) survey return (after graduation) and complete occasional client feedback questionnaires when you use different aspects of the services. You are also expected to treat staff and other users with respect: those who fail to do so will be reported to their college's disciplinary authorities. The Careers Group reserves the right to terminate access to assistance if a user is deemed to have made excessive use of the service.

Client feedback is essential in trying to improve any organisation and we will from time to time ask for your reaction to some aspect of the service, usually by means of a questionnaire but we are always interested in other comments and reaction. Your views are important to us in planning future provision so we hope you will respond fully when we seek client input. Your comments will be confidential unless you decide otherwise. We will endeavour to tell you how our provision has changed as a result of your feedback. We have a complaints procedure details of which are displayed in all our Careers Services.

Confidentiality

All our work with clients is confidential. Feedback, reports etc are always provided directly to the client and information (other than anonymous statistics) is not made public.

Equal Opportunities

As a member of AGCAS and of the University of London, The Careers Group is committed to promoting equality of access and treatment in education, employment, training and guidance, regardless of race, religion, gender, disability, marital status, social class, age or sexual preference. Forms of unlawful direct and indirect discrimination or unequal treatment or unethical behaviour will be challenged.

Codes and Policies

The Careers Group's work is governed by professional ethical codes expressed in a number of documents. Please ask if you wish to see any of them:

• Statutes, Ordinances and Regulations of the University of London
  
• College and University Equal Opportunities Policies
  
• Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services (AGCAS) Code of Practice on guidance
  
• Principles of Coherent IAG Service Delivery
  
• Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education, Code of Practice: Section 8: Careers Education Information and Guidance
  
• The Careers Group Complaints Procedure

Each college has a summary Statement of Service.

Valerie Rowles, Assistant Director (Quality and College Services)
10 February 2004
Amended 8 November 2004
Updated by Dinah Langley 26 February 2007