What is the City Ambassador Programme?
The City Ambassador Programme is about delivering customer service the Southampton way. This programme has been designed and created to upskill and develop staff working in a customer facing role within the city.
Benefits to your business
Your business can see many benefits from getting involved in this City Ambassador Programme.
- Qualified staff who know the city and your customers
- Flexible training schedule to meet the needs of your organisation
- A Southampton recognised standard of customer care
- Government funding support
- The opportunity to develop existing member of your team
- A better connection to the Southampton Community
Who is this course suitable for?
The City Ambassador Programme is built around a Customer Service Apprenticeship Level 2, one of the most popular apprenticeships in the UK. At Kiwi we’ve taken the Apprenticeship Programme and given it a new Southampton ‘twist’!
The customer service industry covers many sectors and job roles that are relevant to both the City of Southampton and the wider community. These roles are complemented by customer service skills and the added knowledge of the Southampton’s past, present and future.
This programme is for anyone who welcomes customer and those visiting the city and wants to create a Southampton welcome.
What will City Ambassadors be able to do at the end of the programme?
At the end of the programme each City Ambassador will be an Apprenticeship qualified Customer Service Practitioner. The role of the customer service practitioner is to deliver high quality products and services to the customers of their organisation. The core responsibilities of a customer service practitioner are to provide a high-quality service to customers which will be delivered from their workplace, digitally or through going out into the customer’s own locality.
They may be one-off or routine contacts and include dealing with orders, payments, offering advice, guidance and support, meet-and-greet, sales, fixing problems, after care, service recovery or gaining insight through measuring customer satisfaction. You may be the first point of contact and work in any sector or organisation type. Your actions will influence the customer experience and their satisfaction with your organisation. You will demonstrate excellent customer service skills and behaviours as well as product and/or service knowledge when delivering to your customers. You provide service in line with the organisation’s customer service standards and strategy and within regulatory requirements.
Your customer interactions may cover a wide range of situation and can include face-to-face, telephone, post, email, text and social media. With the City Ambassador programme this also comes with the knowledge of what makes Southampton a great place to live in and to visit.
The City Ambassador Journey
The programme is structured to meet the needs of your organisation and staff and is delivered by Southampton Trainers through 1-2-1 sessions, group workshops and excursions around the city and includes:
- Customer Service Level 2 Apprenticeship
- Maths and English Functional Skills for those who do not already hold the equivalent of a GCSE Grade A-C/9-4.
- An introduction and welcome session from City Ambassador Partners
- A unique opportunity to experience and learn about Southampton’s heritage and key visitor attractions such as:
- Southampton’s Culture and Diversity
- Southampton walls and Bargate
- The Sea City Museum
- Titanic Story
- WW2 and Spitfire Makers
- Tudor House and Garden
- St Mary’s Stadium
When does the programme start and how long does it last?
The apprenticeship is delivered over 13 months with the Southampton knowledge and activities embedded within the programme. There is then an End Point Assessment (EPA) which is the final module at the end of all apprenticeship programmes. This EPA is designed to test the knowledge, skills and behaviours that an apprentice has gained during their training. The EPA will not test Southampton specific knowledge but will focus on the customer service skills of the apprentice.
How are apprenticeships funded?
Employers are entitled to funding from the Government to help pay for Apprenticeship training and the City Ambassador Programme. The cost of the apprenticeship is set by Government and the cost for the Customer Service Practitioner Apprenticeship is £3,500.
If you are an employer who pays the Apprenticeship Levy, the full cost of the programme can be paid through your Apprenticeship Levy.
If you are non-levy payer, the Government will pay 95% of the apprenticeship costs and you as the employer pay a 5% contribution of £175.00 at the start of the programme.
In some cases, funding via Levy Transfer can be arranged to cover the 5% contribution. Contact Kiwi Education for more information.
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