Support & Guidance

Pre-entry career guidance and college tour

If you feel you need to visit Barony to see our facilities and talk to a subject expert in your field of interest, we will be pleased to arrange this for you.

We will advise on suitable courses and training schemes appropriate to your aims.

To make an arrangements for career guidance and a tour of the facilities contact Gillian Conley.  You can contact Gillian by phone (01387 860 251) or by email gconley@barony.ac.uk

If you know which course you wish to apply for you will be invited for an interview. This can be arranged through our on line application service or by contacting the Admissions Officer Isabel Robson. You can contact Isabel by phone (01387 860 251).

Course and college induction

To ensure that you get to find your feet quickly, an induction is provided at the start of your course. During the induction you will be:

• Introduced to your course tutor, teaching team and others on your course
• Introduced to the key features of your course or training scheme, including the teaching and learning, assessment and safety procedures
• Introduced to life at Barony College, including your work, leisure and domestic life if you are residential
• Shown how to access and use the college facilities and estate
• Advised regarding your core skills development (numeracy and literacy) following a simple evaluation
• Introduced to the Rural Learning Centre and shown how to get the best from the computers that are available to you

A lot of induction activities are undertaken in the first week. Others, such as safety are ongoing and integrated with the rest of your programme.

Your own course tutor and personal tutorials

To help guide you in all aspects of your work and life at the college you will be assigned a course tutor for the duration of your programme. Our course tutors are all experienced and qualified subject experts, and, most importantly, very approachable. They are your first point of contact for any problems with your work or life in general whilst you are with us at Barony.

Each term you will meet with your course tutor for a one-to-one tutorial to review your progress. This is an opportunity for you to :

• raise any matter you wish in strict confidence
• review your career aims,
• ask for additional support in key subject areas,
• provide us feedback on the course from your own personal view point.

Our tutors will constructively assist you and follow up the requests you make.

In the final tutorial, the emphasis is very much on providing advice on job seeking or progression to further education and training.

One-to-one support for your learning

Any of our tutors can be approached for additional support if you are having difficulty with a particular subject. A request is normally made to your course tutor in the first instance so that they can co-ordinate the support.

If you need help we can provide tutor support on a one to one basis.

Support before and after your assessments

Continual assessment is the norm at Barony, although there will be more assessment towards the end of a course than at the beginning. Subject tutors and instructors will recognise when you are ready for assessment and set the date with you.
There are many forms of assessment. Those more commonly applied include:

• observation of practical tasks
• short answer questions testing your retained knowledge
• extended response questions to test your understanding
• open book exercises testing your ability to apply your knowledge
• written projects
• computer based assessments

The emphasis on each of these types of assessment depends very much on the nature of the qualification. For example, SVQ training schemes have a strong emphasis on the observation of practical tasks, whilst an HND course will involve a lot more written projects and extended response questions to test understanding. There are some courses that employ an even mix of many methods.

Ongoing careers advice
We can advise you on how to progress to higher levels of education or training

We have clearly defined progression routes, including links to other colleges and universities.

Our advice continues throughout the time you are with us and will be a topic revisited during regular one to one tutorials with your course tutor. We will take account of your progress and development on the course.

You may find that new experiences during your time with us lead you to review your aims.