New forum: 'Is AAT right for me?'

StuartW

Those of you with eagle eyes (you should get that seen to) may have noticed that we have a new forum round these parts: Is AAT right for me?

This is a new section (still being constructed) aimed at people who may be thinking of studying AAT. We thought it would be useful to create FAQs as sticky threads to help guide people around common queries.

So we have sub-forums for the following topic areas:

• Who can benefit from AAT?
• Getting started with AAT
• Finding an AAT training provider
• Distance learning and other ways to study AAT
• Apprenticeships
  
• AAT Membership (to be completed)
• Where can AAT take me? (to be completed)

We’ve now opened the forum up so that people can create their own threads, and I wondered if I could ask those of you who already share your knowledge and experience so generously to do the same in this new area of the forums. The FAQs will provide some guidance, but, as the success of these forums illustrates, it’s a great benefit to be able to discuss big decisions with people who have ‘been there and done that’.

If you have feedback on this new section I’d be keen to hear it, and if I can offer support when it comes to discussions please do let me know.

Thanks in advance for your help and support!

Stuart

Folander

Hi Stuart,

I have a couple of questions.

1 - Why is the new section available if it is still under construction? I thought in the post completion audit of the AAT website upgrade it would become apparent that the website should be fully constructed and user acceptance testing completed before roll out.

2 - Why hasn't this new area been shelved and resources re-allocated to sorting out the main AAT website?

It has now been months, never mind weeks and statements of achievement are still unavailable. Viewing your own statement and seeing it develop is a great motivating tool and it is also needed to claim exemptions.

Apologies for landing a couple of big ones on ya!

StuartW

Hi Folander,

1. I made the decision to publish the existing sub-forums because, especially with apprenticeships and distance learning, I felt the sooner we had content in place the better. With A-Level results and training provider open days taking place in the near future I felt it was reasonable to assume potential students would be researching their options now. The fact that this new section has received around 3,500 views in its first month without any publicity would suggest people are searching for answers to these questions on search engines and clicking on links to the forum. The forums are not technically connected to the AAT website, do not sit on the same technical platform and unlike more complex services there is no user acceptance testing required before publishing content.

2. None of the resources required to work on the AAT website were employed to produce this content. It was put together by me with the assistance of colleagues who know what questions potential AAT students often ask, and how to answer them. These are not the same people who work on the AAT website; and since I have not been involved in the website redevelopment, whether I had worked on this forum project or not would have had no impact on the shape of the website.

I fully appreciate members are upset about the statement of achievement service being unavailable. It’s a source of great frustration internally as well, and I know the team concerned are continuing work to resolve it.

I’m not going to pretend to be oblivious to the discontent within the membership regarding the website, but I’m of the opinion that difficulties in one area don’t necessarily mean you halt progress in others.

I hope you understand my position.

Thanks,

Stuart