4.Ask for references, testimonials, or details of evaluations, ie evidence of quality assurance of consultants’ work.

5.You can also ask how consultant gets most of its work. Word of mouth is a good sign.

6.Ask for CVs of consultants who will be working in your organisation if you decide to sign up this consultancy.

7.Is consultant qualified to undertake work? This could be an academic qualification, accreditation as an inspector or training provider in one or more schemes, or qualification by experience.

8.Has consultant been on relevant training in last year?

9.Ensure that consultancy agrees not to subcontract work without prior discussion with you, client.

10.If you are considering consultant for staff training, ask if you can attend one of their training sessions in another school.

11.Ask for other evidence that will help you decide if consultancy is best for this particular work in your school, such as a client list (but note point about confidentiality above), examples of video work, published work or a website.

Using a consultant

Once you’ve decided on a particular consultant, have an agreement drawn up that ensures, for example, that you will be kept informed of progress. For example, it may not be unreasonable to ask for a summary every 2 weeks, if you are an LEA and consultant is working in your schools.

Once you’ve hired a consultant, make sure you get best value for money. This means some or even all of following, depending on particular circumstances:

Have a clear set of aims and objectives that you are both agreed upon. This may be developed in discussion with consultant before signing on dotted line, but there must be a clear set of expectations by time consultant starts work.

Make sure that consultant has tools needed to do job effectively. This could mean access to computer network, desk space, essential contact information and so on.

Ensure that you have all contact information you need too: phone and fax numbers, a mobile phone number too, perhaps, with facility for leaving messages, and an email address.

Put in place whatever is needed to enable consultant to “hit ground running”. If, for example, you spend first morning discussing what consultant should do, you’re throwing money down drain: all that should have been agreed beforehand – unless, of course, there is a need for a sudden change in plan, although even in those situations there should have been a contingency plan (a “Plan B”) in place.

Don’t keep asking consultant to do more and more in an unplanned kind of way. If more work is needed, discuss whether it could feasibly be done well in agreed time, or whether more days need to be allocated for it.

Conclusion

With proper groundwork when choosing a consultant, and sound planning, hiring a consultant to help you with your ICT work can be an excellent means of achieving aims of your organisation.

http://www.ictineducation.org

Early Decision II: Offered by some schools, it is virtually identical to Early Decision except application deadlines are later, usually January 1st. As with Early Decision, only one school can be applied to. I’m not an advocate of this one either. Follow Early Decision criteria above and proceed accordingly.

Early Action: Except for Early Decision candidates, I encourage all students to apply for Early Action. Students apply from September 15th to January 1st, and notices usually go out between December 15th and January 31st, (dates may vary). Applying for Early Action has one definite advantage. Since competition is so fierce, sooner a student applies better. For barely qualified student, this is only way to go. It would be highly unlikely such a student would qualify in general applicant pool, as they would be competing against far too many honor students and would pale by comparison. Also, students apply to college at beginning of senior year, and any grades beyond mid-term may not count at all! Always implement this strategy!

Early Notification: This is similar to Early Action, except that some schools might also ask for a commitment to their financial aid package well in advance of traditional May 1st deadline. Unless they make an offer you can’t refuse, ask them to extend their deadline until family has had sufficient time to consider all offers from schools student has been accepted to. I would strongly advise against negotiations because student will be at a serious disadvantage with no other offers to compare and accepting could be a very costly mistake! Avoid this like plague!

Open Admissions: Some four year, most two year and virtually all community colleges will offer all applicants admission on a come-as-you-are basis. If they have room, as long as you have a high school diploma – you’re in! Implement when available.

Rolling Admissions: (I’ve saved best for last.) This is a most advantageous school policy for applicants, as colleges offering Rolling Admissions will notify students of their status within a few weeks of receiving all necessary application documents. They usually accept students until such time as their quotas have been satisfied. Check admissions policies of schools you’re applying to and by all means implement this strategy whenever and wherever available.

This is one of a series of articles by college admissions and financial aid expert, Reecy Aresty, based on his book, “Getting Into College And Paying For It!” For further information or to contact him, please visit www.thecollegebook.com.