your support with randstad.

Randstad specialist mentors offer high standards of support; their aim is to work alongside you throughout your studies. By working to understand you and your needs they will work with you to put together a plan that recognises your individual requirements. Some of the ways they can support you are:

• Help you to reflect on your experiences
• Work with you to improve your organisation skills
• Develop problem-solving skills
• Time management, perhaps using a diary or calendar
• Help you prepare for deadlines by breaking tasks down into small chunks
• Achieve an appropriate balance between study-related tasks and the activities of daily living
• Help you manage anxiety and cope with stress or low mood; both study-related and non-study related
• Improve your confidence and building on your strengths
• Encourage transitional arrangements for the end of the module e.g. access to a specialist careers advisor
• Help you to prepare for new experiences e.g. tutorials – they can explore coping strategies for you to deal with these

A Specialist Mentor could be described as a trusted advisor; their role is distinct from that of a counsellor, interpreter or advocate - although it may well have some elements of these other roles at times.

Mentors should give clear advice to you about the nature of the support they can provide in line with your Assessment of Needs Report.  

Your tutor will work with you on a one-to-one basis to assist in the development of your use of language and study skills in a manner appropriate to you. They provide a high level of expertise and knowledge about learning styles to suggest individual strategies for more effective learning. 

Identification of your needs:

Specialist One-to-One Study Skills Tutors should provide support in line with your Assessment of Needs report. Please share a copy of this document at the first session. This document is important, as it will allow you and your worker to identify those areas where you feel you most need help and to set priorities. 

Provision of appropriate support:

Support should:

• Have clear aims and objectives agreed with you.
• Be flexible in recognition of the shifting demands of the course and your own evolving skills.   
• Encourage you to develop independence.
• Encourage you to build on existing strengths and learning strategies.

Specialist tutors can support you in the following areas:

Organisational skills

• Time management
• Filing systems, both paper-based and electronic
• Working to deadlines
• Creating action plans

Research skills

• Accessing sources of information
• Using a variety of sources rather than over-reliance on one source
• Distinguishing between appropriate and inappropriate sources
• Using references and compiling bibliographies

Comprehension skills

• Understanding key phrases in essay titles and examinations
• Inferring and generalising from what is written in a text
• Paraphrasing and summarising information
• Reading strategies

Specialist notetakers are there to produce a set of notes from tutorials, seminars and lectures for you to use. They will provide you with an account of what is being communicated, with any repetitions or hesitations removed.

This support will provide you with reliable, consistent and high quality interpreting provision. All of our tutors are highly skilled and qualified, and are here to make sure you get the most out of studying.