The goal of this document is to offer advice and guidance in picking a consultant in the field of education. Perhaps you are the headteacher or principal of a school or college, an officer in a local education authority (LEA) or school district, or the director of an exclusive company wishing to undertake work in the educational sector. This short article focuses mainly on information and communication technology (ICT), however the underlying principles also apply more generally.
Using a consultant
Consultants, at the least in the UK, have an undesirable reputation as a species, and yet they’re in greater demand than ever. Why? Why would any organisation elect to employ a consultant rather than hiring someone? There are many reasons for this.
Short-term work
Some work is, by its very nature, short-term. If, as an example, you’re having a new computer suite installed, you may want some advice from an external individual who doesn’t have axe to grind – and whom you can blame when half the staff complain about the look, the gear and etc!
Expertise
In a specialist area, such as for instance ICT, it’s quite likely that the institution doesn’t have the expertise in-house to complete what it takes to complete inside a particular time scale.
Cost
Although consultants could be expensive, it is (or should be) a somewhat short-term expense. And don’t forget that you do not have all the on-costs, like pension contributions. These may add up to 20% of the salary costs. Also, if the consultant goes on vacation or falls ill, you don’t incur any extra expense.
Selecting a consultant
When choosing a consultant or adviser to aid your school in ICT, whether for Hands-On Support, training, strategic development or some other facet of ICT, it’s important to obtain the right person or company for the job.
To help you do so, here is a listing of questions you may decide to ask before hiring someone. You are unlikely to get any person or company who can answer “yes” to all of these questions, so you will need to bring your own personal professional judgement to bear on your decision.
1. Is the consultancy independently accredited study in australia with a quality assurance scheme, such as for instance by NaaceMark or similar scheme? Or even, is it seeking accreditation? Note an answer of “No” either way is certainly not a negative thing. In my own experience, the job itself is really time-consuming that it’s quite difficult to feel the hoops needed to prove that you certainly can do what you’re doing! That’s why the next few questions are very important too.
2. Is the consultant a member of a relevant organisation, such as for instance (in the UK) Naace or the Society for Education Consultants? These kind of organisation supply a certain level of quality assurance in the sense that they won’t accept just anybody as members, although they’ll give no guarantees about the grade of work undertaken by their members. Also, they often provide useful details about the sector in that your consultant works, which the theory is that at the least keeps the consultant up-to-date on current developments in the field.
3. Ask for details of similar work undertaken by the consultancy, and for details of satisfied clients – but keep in mind that a reluctance to produce such details may be as a result of considerations of confidentiality.
4. Ask for references, testimonials, or details of evaluations, ie evidence of quality assurance of the consultants’work.
5. You can even ask how the consultant gets most of its work. Person to person is a great sign.
6. Ask for the CVs of the consultants who is likely to be in your organisation if you determine to register this consultancy.
7. Is the consultant qualified to undertake the job? This might be an academic qualification, accreditation being an inspector or training provider in a number of schemes, or qualification by experience.
8. Has got the consultant been on relevant training in the last year?
9. Ensure that the consultancy agrees to not subcontract the job without prior discussion with you, the client.
10. If you should be thinking about the consultant for staff training, ask when you can attend certainly one of their training sessions in another school.
11. Ask for other evidence that can help you determine if the consultancy is the greatest for this particular work in your school, like a client list (but note point about confidentiality above), samples of video work, published work or a website.
Using a consultant
Once you’ve decided on a specific consultant, have an agreement drawn up that ensures, as an example, you will be kept informed of progress. Like, it may possibly not be unreasonable to request a summary every 2 weeks, if you should be an LEA and the consultant is in your schools.
Once you’ve hired a consultant, make sure you get the best value for money. What this means is some as well as all the following, with regards to the particular circumstances:
Have a clear set of aims and objectives that you are both agreed upon. This might be developed in discussion with the consultant before signing on the dotted line, but there should be a clear set of expectations by the full time the consultant starts work.
Make sure that the consultant has the tools needed seriously to perform the job effectively. This could mean use of the computer network, desk space, essential contact information and so on.
Ensure that you have all the contact information you will need too: phone and fax numbers, a cellular phone number too, perhaps, with the facility for leaving messages, and a message address.
Put in position whatever is needed to enable the consultant to “hit the bottom running “.If, as an example, you spend the first morning discussing what the consultant must do, you’re throwing money down the drain: all which should have been agreed beforehand – unless, needless to say, there is a requirement for a sudden change in plan, although even yet in those situations there should have been a contingency plan (a “Plan B”) in place.
Don’t keep asking the consultant to complete more and more in a unplanned sort of way. If more work will become necessary, discuss whether it could feasibly be performed well in the agreed time, or whether more days must be allocated for it.