The Brief – money matters

  • You are at 6th form college and today you are on the rota in the student support office. There has been a lot of publicity on TV and in the press lately about people getting into debt because they do not seem to know very much about money matters. Your college has decided to have a regular weekly session to help students to deal with any problems they might have. The sessions have become very popular and there are several students waiting to be seen. They will be asking you questions about money matters.
  • These will arrive as messages in your inbox approximately every five to ten minutes – so work quickly – and remember – we are watching you!!!
  • To find out how you should deal with each person’s dilemma, you should research your answers by clicking on the various links (e.g. "What is my role in this scenario?")
  • You will then need to let “talkingshop” Head Office know how you are going to respond to the student.
  • “talkingshop” Head Office is your teams “expert” who will help you through this scenario. Your expert is probably a Trading Standards Officer or a Citizens Advice Officer, both of whom may deal with these sorts of queries from students on a daily basis.
  • All the answers to each student’s dilemma are within the relevant links so do not expect your “expert” to give you the answers.
  • You will need to send a response for each student’s dilemma to your “expert” by typing it in the purple message bar at the bottom of the screen. Please remember to start your response off with the relevant key word that you will be given in each message (e.g. BANK).
  • If you get stuck and need help from the "talkingshop" Head Office (your “expert”), then you can use one of your three lifelines. You use a lifeline in the same way as you send an answer – by writing a message in the purple message box. Start your message with the word "LIFELINE". "Talkingshop" Head Office will get back to you as soon as possible with a response to your query. This may take a few minutes so don’t hang around. Get on with dealing with another student or doing some more research.
  • Finally, remember that it is not easy for people to talk to you about issues like this. Some of them are very worried especially if they have been ignoring a financial problem in the hope that it will go away. Something can always be done to help the situation and it is important to let people know this.