Media Café offers a range of services and interventions aimed at helping people make optimum use of the opportunities offered by the project. These can be roughly divided into two categories:

Services and Interventions Aimed at Individuals

Services and Interventions Targeting Groups of People

Assessment

Assessment helps people understand what skills they already have and what skills they might need to develop. It can also help provide a guideline as to what level of qualification they might reasonably achieve. Often people who want to learn new computer skills are not certain or well informed as to what level of learning they need. Therefore, assessment is a built-in part of the work at Media Café. Assessments undertaken at Media Café are not formal or "scary". They involve a person working with members of staff to get a better picture of his or her own needs.

Through discussion and a few simple exercises, members of staff are able to help users:

• Develop an accurate picture of his/her level of skill
• Get more accurate advice on what learning best suits his/her needs
• Identify learning goals and progression routes to more advanced learning
• Record learning already completed

People do not have to be committed to attending a course to benefit from assessment. An initial assessment is available to anyone whilst more in-depth assessment is offered to all members.

You are able to access assessment through the drop-in at Media Café or by contacting us to see when the most appropriate worker will be available. Members and people enrolled in courses will be offered one-to-one assessment as part of their learning at Media Café.

IAG

Media Café provides an Information, Advice and Guidance service for users. You do not have to be a member of Media Café to use this service, although members and enrolled learners obviously have access to a higher level of ongoing support with regards to IAG. As service with a specialism in ICT, new media and the creative industries, the IAG on learning pathways and career development offered by Media Café focuses on people who have aspirations and interests in these areas. However, given the broad-reaching implications of ICT in practically all career paths, we can also provide a high level of information and advice on how specific ICT skills relate to work in a vast range of employment fields.

Media Café offers IAG through a range of interventions ranging from a more traditional one-to-one work to seminar-style workshops. Increasingly Media Café is involved in the delivery of sectional of IAG interventions through innovative telemetric delivery such as through online mentoring and information provision.

Anyone can access initial information and advice either through drooping in at Media Café or through contacting us. A more in depth, one-to-one session can be arranged once you have completed an initial discussion with us about your needs and interests.

Where Media Café is not the service best suited to your IAG needs, we will ensure that you are referred to an appropriate agency. Through links with the careers service, job centres and specialist services such as HAFED's Careers & Training Advice for Adults, we can ensure that you are accessed to appropriate support.