No. 1/1999
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No. 1/1999 |
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The Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) is to carry out a root and branch review of NVQs. Over the next six months 15 sector advisory groups will be set up, all chaired by prominent business leaders. A spokesman for the Authority said "one of the purposes of looking at every NVQ will be to see which ones no longer serve the purpose for which they were designed."
The sector groups began meeting in December and will continue throughout 1999. They will hear presentations concentrating on skills needs, training and qualifications. Estimates of the number of vocational qualifications are about 1700 of which there are 900 NVQs. Nick Tate, the Chief Executive of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, said streamlining qualifications will be one option under review. "My view is that there are too many qualifications - it is confusing to employers. I am keen to talk to employers about whether they want more flexible qualifications." The Vice- President of the Institute of Personnel and Development, Trevor Bromelow considers Scottish/ National Vocational Qualifications need to be redesigned and dynamised to open up for individuals and organisations together the opportunity to demonstrate world class standards of excellence. They also need to be made more relevant to the realities of the specific workplaces in which S/NVQs holders are employed. Employees who are competent enough in one organisation can find themselves quite out of touch with the standards in another high performing one. As well as addressing employers needs for tailoring S/NVQs more closely to the workplace they should also bridge the gap between individual and organisational standards. The IPD considers also that, as part of making S/NVQs more flexible for individuals' careers mobility and lifelong learning whilst at the same time keeping the qualifications relevant to job roles in organisations, there is a need to certificate and recognise individuals' attainment at NVQ unit level, (or cluster of units) short of a full NVQ qualification. Another aspect of NVQs is the wide variation in costs of training employees in particular to level 2. Recent government commissioned research* by the Institute of Employment Research Warwick University has found that the average net cost of training to NVQ level 2 ranged from just over UK£ 1000 (ca. EUR 1,471) in the electronics sector to nearly £9000 (ca. EUR 13,243)in the construction industry. Costs were liable to be higher if there was a possibility of progression to higher NVQ level because training was more highly structured and contained a significant off-the-job element. * "Employers net costs of training to NVQ level 2(RR57)" April 1998 ISBN 085522 775 3 - available from DfEE Publications, PO Box 5050, Sudbury, Suffolk CO10 6ZQ. Price UK£ 4.95 (EUR 7.28) Tel no: (44-845) 6022260 - Fax: (44-845) 6033360, E-mail: dfee@prologistics.co.uk
More information from: Roy Harrison, Adviser, Training and Development, Institute of Personnel and Development, Camp Road, London SW19 4UX - Tel.: (44-181) 2633286 - Fax: (44-181) 2633333 - E-mail: r.harrison@ipd.co.uk - Internet: www.ipd.co.uk Source: IPD |
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