Client needs for coherent information, advice and guidance services ...

• a student who is part of a group receiving a careers input to an access course
and who also seeks out IAG from a specialist provider (perhaps as a result of the
former);
• a young person on a lifeskills programme who takes up an option to discuss
development needs individually with an IAG professional.
408 However, the distinction between those who seek out IAG services and those who
have IAG delivered to them, is an important one to bear in mind in relation to the
motivation of clients and their resulting perceptions of IAG services.
AWARENESS AND UNDERSTANDING OF IAG
409 In general terms clients have a very limited awareness and understanding of the full
range of IAG services. This is a major constraint on their being able to access the
most appropriate service at the optimal moment – and, by extension, on their ability
to assess whether services are ‘coherent’.
410 Selected findings include the following:-
• with exception of Jobcentre Plus 6 and learndirect 7 , most adults are only aware of
their current IAG provider;
• most adults use IAG only for job seeking or access to learning opportunities.
Few access services for career development planning – but such provision is
difficult to find and often a costed service;
• there is hardly any awareness of IAG being a sector or of providers being part of
a broader network;
• many adults, other than those in the benefits system, had ‘stumbled across’
their current provider. Selection was hardly ever the result of an informed
evaluation of the various providers in the area;
• many clients said they would have used services earlier, had they been aware of
them;
• there was hardly any recognition of IAG in a workplace environment. Employers
and trade unions were not seen as being players in the IAG arena;
• brand awareness of Connexions was high. Young people were generally more
aware of the services on offer than adults.
COHERENCE
411 Most adults had not thought about the issue of coherence in IAG. Given their low
awareness and understanding of the sector, they did not have well developed
expectations of services received, against which to assess their actual experiences.
412 When prompted, clients tended to focus initially on what constituted a lack of
coherence. Examples cited tended to be frustrations with the system at a fairly
superficial level – especially over practical arrangements (e.g. appointments not
being kept or benefits being stopped).
413 At a deeper level, coherence appeared to be associated, in clients’ minds, with:-
• relevance (of a particular course of action being proposed or followed);
• client centredness (the goals are from the individual, not imposed by the
provider);
6 Jobcentre Plus, however, is not seen as an IAG provider. It is associated almost exclusively with jobfinding for the
unemployed and the benefits system.
7 Brand awareness of learndirect is good but there is confusion between the impartial national telephone helpline and the
call centres for learndirect courses and centres.
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