NGRF - UK National Guidance Research Forum

The indicators that determine success can conflict with one another. For example, a unit providing impartial advice to individuals enquiring about college courses may be judged as performing poorly if the time spent on dispensing advice does not translate into the expected number of enrolments. However, if the service was to be judged in terms of the retention rate of students who had enrolled on courses following their advice sessions it might be found to score very highly. Much guidance is linked to outcomes that may only emerge over time. These outcomes are particularly hard to measure, and it may be hard to link progression to any single intervention where a client may be seeking support from a wide range of different sources. It may be that somebody ‘dropping out’ from a course following guidance, would be judged by policy makers as inherently negative and a ‘failing’, yet case study research might indicate that for the individual concerned this was a positive outcome, leading to an alternative that was more appropriate for the individual concerned.