ASA Adjudication on Schools Courses & Career Development
Schools Courses & Career Development t/a
SCCD Training and Recruitment
Hannibal House
Elephant and Castle Complex
London
SE1 6TE
Date:
18 July 2012
Media:
Regional press
Sector:
Education
Number of complaints:
1
Complaint Ref:
A12-194345
Background
Summary of Council decision:
Two issues were investigated both of which were Upheld.
Ad
A press ad for a recruitment firm, which appeared in the "Teaching Appointments" section of a newspaper, stated "100'S [sic] OF TEACHING & TEACHER ASSISTANT JOBS AVAILABLE!!! OFFICIAL: London has 70,000 too few school places from Sept 2012 Exceptional demand for Teachers and Teacher Assistants in Primary/Secondary schools No experience, no problem fully funded training available. 100% Guaranteed School Placement SCCD Training & Recruitment".
Issue
The complainant challenged whether:
1. the ad was misleading, because it implied that the advertisers offered employment opportunities, because he understood that they offered training; and
2. the claim "100% Guaranteed School Placement" was misleading and could be substantiated.
CAP Code (Edition 12)
Response
1. & 2. Schools Courses & Career Development t/a SCCD Training and Recruitment (SCCD) stated that SCCD was an accredited training centre which offered training courses and that all training offered had a compulsory school placement component, which meant that the candidates' training remained incomplete unless they completed that placement. They said that, in over six years of delivering accredited training, all trainees had completed their training, including the placement. They said they had records and an audit on file to substantiate that and they were also moderated externally. They said the ad did not claim that they did direct recruitment. They said the purpose of placements was to lead candidates into employment and that most of their placements led to jobs. They therefore felt that they did impact directly on job opportunities, job potential and hiring opportunities. They said they did not claim to have jobs on offer but intended to claim that they offered the potential to get a job.
Assessment
1. Upheld
The ASA understood that the ad was intended to promote training opportunities. However, although we noted that the ad stated "No experience, no problem fully funded training available" and "SCCD Training & Recruitment", which referred to training, we noted the ad was headlined "100'S [sic] OF TEACHING & TEACHER ASSISTANT JOBS AVAILABLE!!!" and stated "Exceptional demand for Teachers and Teacher Assistants in Primary/Secondary schools" and considered consumers would infer that SCCD were able to directly offer paid employment as a teacher or teaching assistant. Because we had not seen any supporting evidence that the advertisers offered direct employment opportunities, we concluded that the ad was likely to mislead.
On that point, the ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 3.1 (Misleading advertising), 3.7 (Substantiation) and 20.9 (Vocational Training and Instruction Courses).
2. Upheld
We understood that SCCD offered training courses, which included a placement in a school. Although we noted that the ad made reference to training, we considered that, in the context of an ad which was headlined "100'S [sic] OF TEACHING & TEACHER ASSISTANT JOBS AVAILABLE!!!" and which stated "Exceptional demand for Teachers and Teacher Assistants in Primary/Secondary schools", some consumers would be likely to understand that the claim "100% Guaranteed School Placement" referred predominantly to direct paid employment in a school, rather than relating solely to a training placement. We therefore considered that the combination of those two claims was ambiguous, because it suggested that the "100% Guaranteed School Placement" referred to a paid teaching or teacher assistant job.
Because we noted we had not seen any evidence which showed that SCCD were able to guarantee placements to all applicants for paid recruitment following their training, we concluded that the claim was misleading.
On that point, the ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 3.1 (Misleading advertising), 3.7 (Substantiation) and 20.9 (Vocational Training and Instruction Courses).
Action
The claims must not appear again in their current form.
