Training new staff in consulting skills determines the quality of the entire study-abroad consulting operation, and this is the stage most organisations handle in an ad hoc way.
The common approach is to have new staff sit in on a few consulting sessions with experienced staff and then work on their own. This approach passes on the habits of the experienced staff, both good and bad, and guarantees nothing in terms of knowledge.
This guide sets out a structured programme divided into four stages.
Three competencies to build
Consultants need three different sets of competencies, and each is learned in a different way.
Product knowledge. Programmes, entry requirements, costs, procedures. This is learned through materials and can be tested with an exam.
Communication skills. Listening, asking questions, explaining complex content clearly, and handling difficult situations. This is only learned through practice and feedback.
Professional standards. The boundaries of one’s authority, how to handle conflicts of interest, and principles of honesty. This is learned through concrete situations and through the example set by more experienced colleagues.
The third group is the hardest and the most important. It does not show up in day-to-day work right away, but it determines what happens when a consultant faces a difficult choice.
Stage one: foundation, first week
The goal is for new staff to understand the context before interacting with learners.
Understand the industry and its stakeholders. Who is who in the chain: the school, recruitment partners, learners, families. The role and interests of each party.
Understand their own role. What they may and may not do. This should be the first thing taught, not the last.
Understand the process. From a learner’s first contact through to enrolment, including the steps involved and who is responsible for each.
Read the standard set of materials. No need to memorise them, but they need to know where each piece of information can be found.
The first week should end with a short test on the boundaries of authority. Anyone who has not grasped this should not yet be interacting with learners.
Stage two: product knowledge, weeks two to four
The goal is to master the content well enough to answer real questions.
Learn by programme grouprather than spreading across the entire catalogue at once. Start with the programme group that receives the most applications.
For each programme, master five things: the curriculum content, full entry requirements, total cost, application process, and frequently asked questions.
Learn how to look things up rather than memorise them. The programme catalogue changes, and what matters is knowing where to find up-to-date information.
Do lookup exercises. Give a scenario and ask the new staff member to find the answer from the standard materials within a set time.
The fourth exercise is worth investing in because it builds the right habit: looking things up rather than answering from memory.
Stage three: communication skills, from week five
This is the longest stage and requires continuous practice.
Observe first. Sit in on real consulting sessions with an experienced staff member, with the learner’s consent. After each session, discuss what was observed.
Role-play. An experienced staff member plays the parent in different scenarios: one who has done thorough research, one who knows nothing, one with unrealistic expectations, one comparing many options.
Real consulting with an observer. The new staff member leads the session while the experienced staff member sits in and steps in when needed.
Independent consulting with follow-up review. The new staff member handles it alone, then discusses afterward what happened.
These four steps should follow in sequence and should not be shortened. Letting new staff consult independently too soon creates risk for learners and also causes the new staff member to form bad habits.
Training consulting skills through difficult situations
Real skill shows up in situations where the correct answer is not the one that favours the consultant. Six situations should be included in training.
The learner does not meet the requirements for the programme they want. The correct approach is to clearly state what is missing and propose alternatives, not to encourage applying anyway.
The best-fit option is outside the list one represents. This is the situation that most clearly reveals professional standards.
The family has unrealistic cost expectations. Full figures must be given even when doing so may cause them to reconsider.
The learner is pressured by family into choosing a field they do not want. The consultant should not interfere in the family’s decision but can provide information so the discussion is better grounded.
Being asked about something one does not know. The correct response is to acknowledge it and follow up later, not to guess.
Being asked to guarantee an outcome. State clearly what lies outside one’s authority, and explain the process rather than making promises.
An effective way to train for these six situations is group discussion: present the situation, have each person state how they would handle it, then analyse together. This is far more effective than lecturing on principles.
Record-keeping and documentation
Two tools that make training more durable.
A file of real cases. Whenever a memorable situation occurs, record it in four parts: context, what the consultant did, the outcome, and the lesson learned. After a year, this file becomes more valuable than any generic curriculum.
A bank of difficult questions with sample answers. Built from questions consultants have actually been asked and found difficult. Update it continuously.
Both of these documents should be contributed to by the whole team, not written by one person and handed down. Contributing to them is itself a form of learning.
Assessing whether a new staff member is ready
Three checks before letting a new staff member work independently.
A knowledge test. On programmes, requirements, costs, and especially on the boundaries of authority.
Role-play with a difficult scenario. Choose two of the six situations above and observe how the new staff member handles them.
Review the records of observed consulting sessions. Does the new consultant record the content of discussions, and send it back to the learner in writing?
One final point worth noting: record-keeping habits formed in the early stage stay with a consultant throughout their career, and they protect both the consultant and the learner in the event of a dispute.
For content on degree recognition that consultants are often asked about, the framework of The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) should be included in the training materials, so they get used to citing sources instead of answering based on gut feeling.
Sustaining it after the initial stage
Training does not end when a new hire starts working independently.
Periodic team discussions. One short session each month to share situations encountered during the month.
Updates whenever information changes. Every time a school adjusts tuition or conditions, there needs to be a notice and confirmation that it has been understood.
Periodic re-observation. Every six months, one consultation session with an observer present. Not to check up on the consultant, but to spot habits that have formed which the consultant themselves may not be aware of.
A channel to ask when something unfamiliar comes up. Consultants must have somewhere to ask instead of guessing on their own. This is the most effective safeguard against misinformation.
When professional standards need to be placed in the broader context of the international education sector, the policy report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) provide a reference point.
Three common mistakes
Letting a new hire work independently too soon. This is usually driven by staffing pressure, but the cost of one bad consultation is far greater than the cost of extending the training period.
Training only on products while skipping standards. Someone who knows the information well but is unclear on the boundaries of their authority still creates major risk.
No one is responsible for mentoring. When mentoring is a shared responsibility of the whole team, in practice it becomes no one’s responsibility. A specific person should be assigned to each new hire.
Summary
Consulting skills training for new hires should be divided into four stages, with content on the boundaries of authority taught first, not last.
The three competency groups to build are product knowledge, communication skills, and professional standards, of which the third is the hardest and is best learned through discussing difficult scenarios.
And the tool with the most lasting value is a set of real scenarios contributed and updated by the team itself.
Next Steps
Turn the six difficult scenarios mentioned in this article into a discussion document, and set aside one session for the whole team to discuss how to handle them.
This discussion session usually reveals a significant difference in how each person handles the same situation, and it is exactly that gap that needs to be reconciled.
