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Imagine the scene … avidly engaged groups of young people working in small teams on the kind of real-life situations that they face every day. They’ll interact, by e-mail with Trading Standards professionals who have the knowledge and skill to provide instant feedback to queries. They’ll also be able to observe how other participating schools and teams are interacting with the professionals, making for a real joined-up experience.

As for subject matter, the range of consumer issues facing young people gets wider every day. Consider the plight of the youngster who wants a mobile phone, but doesn’t understand the complexities of the small print or the teenager who buys a computer game over the internet, changes their mind and is not aware that they have a cooling-off period.

Credit and debt; cooling-off periods; refund, exchange and repair; counterfeit goods, age restricted products … it’s all covered in "talkingshop".

Participating authorities will be the link to their local schools and will work in conjunction with neighbouring authorities or regional Trading Standards partners to bring "talkingshop" to life in their areas. The key to its success lies in partnership working between schools and like-minded authorities.

Learning sessions, facilitated by the "talkingshop" website, will be delivered by centrally located Trading Standards professionals to pupils in teams grouped around PCs in schools. These live, realtime sessions are supported by ‘before and after’ materials to help develop skills and strengthen understanding. Teachers in-school will benefit from easy start-up materials and notes to get things going.

The "talkingshop" initiative is set up to deliver a programme of events to any number of schools simultaneously.