Why become an accredited training provider?

TravelMole guest comment by Samina Kahn, strategic manager FDS policy at the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority

Lord Leitch has set a challenging agenda (Leitch Review of Skills – December 2006) to elevate the UK to a world skills leader by 2020.

He rightly points out that reaching this goal is paramount to UK businesses being able to compete on a global scale.

Towards this goal, work is underway to introduce a new Qualifications and Credit Framework (QCF), to ensure that the vocational qualifications system is simpler and better understood by employers and learners.

For the first time, the system will record people’s work-based learning and training achievements, making it easier to identify where skills gaps exist and ultimately ensuring the nation is more skilled and competitive.

We know that industry spends billions of pounds developing employees’ skills, but that much of this valuable learning and training goes unrecognised. To-date there has been no way of recognising this learning that takes place outside of the national qualifications framework; learning that is subsequently ‘lost’ when employees move to another department or organisation. 

To ensure that this lost work-based learning is captured and is easier for employers and learners to understand, the credit based QCF is being developed.

QCA (Qualifications and Curriculum Authority) is working with employers on tests and trials to ensure their in-house training is recognised on a national level. 

QCA recently announced that three companies, McDonalds, Flybe and Network Rail, have been recognised as having awarding body status. 

Flybe currently offers over 300 courses to its employees, including engineering, cabin crew, call centre and ticket desk training.

The initial QCF pilot will commence in the middle of 2008 enabling Flybe to offer its employees nationally recognised qualifications designed specifically for its own business needs. 

All the qualifications will be based on Flybe’s current training and modified, where needed, to achieve the QCA’s awarding criteria for the QCF, which all awarding bodies need to attain. The courses will be run and evaluated by Flybe’s current training teams, delivering end qualifications from Level 2 (equivalent in demand to GCSEs grade A*-C) right up to Level 4 (equivalent in demand to degree standard).

Simon Witts, Flybe’s Director of Safety, Quality and Training said: “A nationally recognised framework will enable employees to become more involved in their own training, enabling them to drive their needs into the training system. I think that the QCF will give us a competitive advantage as a business because it gives us the ability to look at our staff, to train, retrain, and develop them.”

For Flybe, becoming an accredited training provider will increase the recognition of their training whilst improving the businesses efficiency in a highly competitive industry and ultimately helping to raise skill levels across the country.

We encourage employers to contact us if they are interested in the pilots by emailing [email protected].