Supporting Results Day Candidate Advice Line August 2014

What is the Candidate Advice Line? The Candidate Advice Line is a telephone help line set up to provide support and advice for our young learners in the week that they receive their examination results.

Why the Candidate Advice Line? Results day can be very stressful for candidates, their parents or guardians. Months and months of dedicated hard work and studying culminates in the arrival of the eagerly anticipated brown envelope.

Who are the Candidate Advice Line? The Candidate Advice Line is resourced by supportive SQA staff, specially trained to help candidates and parents with common enquiries about the layout and content of their certificate as well as provide advice on where to find support and information on the next steps to take if they have not achieved the results that they had hoped for.

Question time?  How many of you are aware that this service is available?  How many calls and s do you think we receive on certification day?  Who do you think we receive the most calls from?

Answers?  The Candidate advice line opens at 8 am on 5th August and runs till 5pm on 8th August  Approximately 2150 calls and 616 s are received on certification day 5th August  We receive calls from Candidates, parents, guardians schools, media, MSP’s and even lawyers!

More Info……..  What time do you think we receive the most calls ?  What do you think are the most common enquiries?

Answers?  Peak call times are between 11am and 2pm  Most Common enquiries : 1.Candidate has moved house and certificate has gone to their old address 2.Spelling of Candidate’s name is incorrect on certificate 3.Candidate has not received the results they expected

Business as usual The Customer Service Team provide support for Candidates and Centres throughout the year. Daily they deal with 400 telephone and 370 enquiries. On certification day the number of enquiries received will increase by approximately 600%!

How can you help us to help you? The most common reason that candidates contact us is because the data we hold is inaccurate for example  Candidate’s name is spelt incorrectly  Candidate’s address is incorrect  Candidates unaware of the processes for changes in personal data after the school closes for Summer holidays

How can you help us to help you? You can help us by ensuring that information held in your system matches what is held in SQA’s system ensuring  Candidate’s name is spelt correctly  Candidate’s address is current  Centre notifies SQA of any changes prior to the school closing for Summer holidays  Inform candidates of timelines for updating personal data and what to do if it is too late

More ways you can help…. If Candidates and parents were aware:  What support will be available in school on results day  Only the school can provide a breakdown of their results, the Candidate Advice line does not have access to this information  Where to find information regarding procedures for Results Services and Exceptional Circumstances  And only the school can request clerical checks and/or marking reviews

We are unable to help with…..  Directly updating candidate’s personal data  Providing advice regarding expected results  Initiating exceptional circumstances, clerical checks or marking reviews We will advise the candidate to contact the school for any of the above enquiries.

We can help with…..  Referring candidates to Skills Development Scotland for impartial careers advice and information on university vacancies and college options.  Providing contact details for UCAS if the candidate has failed to meet the conditions of the offer made by the University And finally……..  we will listen to our young learners and provide them with support and advice on certification day.

Further Information Contact details for Candidate Advice Line:  Telephone number  – Operational hours:  Tuesday 5 th and Wednesday 6 th August 08:00– 18:00hrs  Thursday 7 th and Friday 8 th August 09:00 – 17:00hrs

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