Scenario
This Friday the adviser needs to deliver a group session to students interested in a particular occupation. The LMI coordinator is not available. The LMI and preparation needed for the session should anticipate the sorts of question that could be asked, for example about future employment prospects, competition, or the skills and qualifications needed now and in the future.

1 Start with your clients' needs
Make sure that you know what they need, and always keep these needs in clear view.

2 Identify possible source and obtain the information
Examples are: professional bodies, industry training organisations, local chamber of commerce, major employers in the occupational area.

3 Skim and highlight
Get good at skimming. Pick out information that seems useful and highlight it for later.

4 Return and review
Go back to the highlighted passages. Ask yourself:

Summarise it. Write it down and put down the facts that support it.

5 Draw conclusions
Bearing in mind your clients' needs, what can you conclude about the messages contained in the information? What use are these messages to your clients?

6 Identify what else you need
If you use national or regional LMI, you may need local information to qualify your interpretation. The local scene could be an exception to the general trend.

 

7 Identify your strengths in presenting information
Work out how you are going to do it, for example by one or more of:


An example

Message
It isn't simply the number of job openings that affects a person's chances of getting a job.

Facts
Increase in unfilled vacancies in the west of Somewhere during the last six months: 27.8%. Unemployment in the west of Somewhere: 10.4% in December 199- (source: Labour Market Quarterly Report, February 199-).

Conclusions
Other external factors affect a person's chances too, such as the number of people competing for the vacancies, and the skills, levels of competence and aptitudes they have.