Before enrolling

"Will this actually get me a job?" and the honest shape of the answer

Underneath almost every enrolment enquiry sits one question that rarely gets typed: will this change anything for me. Institutions answer it badly in both directions - either with a percentage nobody can source, or with nothing at all. There is a third answer, it is longer, and it is the one that survives contact with a student who finishes.

The outcome claim is the easiest thing to invent and the hardest to keep

A figure for graduates in work within six months is persuasive, cheap to assert and almost never traceable to a method. If your institution has one, publish how it was measured, over which cohort, counting whom - and if it cannot survive that sentence, it should not appear on a page or in an assistant's answer. Prospective students forgive an institution that says it does not track something. They do not forgive discovering the number meant something else.

What can be said instead, and it is more persuasive

The concrete things: what the qualification entitles the holder to apply for, which employers have recruited from this course and when, what the assessment actually produces that a student can show someone, whether there is a placement and whether it is guaranteed or competitive. Specifics are checkable, which is exactly why they are believed. A named employer and a date persuade harder than any percentage.

Refuse the individual version, every time

"Will I get a job with this" is a question about one person's prospects and an institution cannot answer it, in a chat window least of all. The correct move is to say so plainly and then give the person what is actually decidable: what the course leads to, who to speak to about their particular situation, and what previous students with similar backgrounds have gone on to do. Refusing without redirecting reads as evasion.

The questions asked after enrolment are different, and nobody answers them

Transcripts, certificate replacement, reference requests, confirmation of attendance for an employer or an embassy, alumni access to the library. These arrive for years, they are entirely administrative, and they land on whoever happens to be nearest. Publishing them once is one of the highest-return pages an institution can write, and the traffic is invisible until you look at the inbox.

Frequently asked questions

Can the assistant tell someone the course will help their career?
No, and the refusal should be explicit rather than hedged. What it can do is describe what the qualification is recognised for, what graduates have done, and who at the institution discusses individual situations. The distinction is between describing a course and predicting a person, and it is the same line every other part of the institution already respects.
We do have employment statistics. Can we use them?
Yes, with the method attached. Say the cohort, the year, the definition of employment used and the response rate of whatever survey produced it. A figure with its workings shown is a strong claim; the same figure alone is a liability the first time a student asks how it was counted.
What about questions from people who finished years ago?
They are the cheapest traffic to serve and the most neglected. A former student needing proof of attendance for a visa application wants a process and a timescale, not a conversation. Publish what you issue, what it costs, how long it takes and where to ask - and the same page answers it at midnight from another country.
Should we mention that some students do not finish?
If you publish completion information at all, publish it honestly, and consider that the people most deterred by a low figure are often the ones you would have lost anyway. Institutions that describe who tends to struggle and what support exists tend to attract better-matched applicants than those that imply everyone sails through.
How do we stop the assistant being optimistic on our behalf?
Test it with the question as a student would actually put it, twice, with a second message pushing for reassurance. Systems built to be helpful produce encouragement under pressure, and the second reply is where it appears. If it starts predicting outcomes for the person typing, it needs the refusal written in rather than hoped for.

Get in touch

Leave your details and we will reply. You do not need a sales call to get an answer.