News from BIS on vocational training and qualifications

A wide range of news and updates on  skills and vocational qualifications including latest on the introduction of the QCF.

Launch of Skills Strategy and Investment Strategy

On 16 November, the Secretary of State for Business Vince Cable and Skills Minister John Hayes launched the Government’s strategy for skills, Skills for Sustainable Growth, and its parallel publication, Investing in Skills for Sustainable Growth.

The strategy sets out the Government’s vision for reform of the Further Education and skills system in order to improve the skills of the workforce, the performance of the economy and engagement in learning.

Investing in Sustainable Growth sets out how the Government seeks to achieve its objectives through investing strategically in FE and skills over this Spending Review period. Savings will have to be made, but the Government understands the importance of continuing high levels of participation and performance.

Recent speeches

The two major publications were launched at the annual Association of Colleges conference in Birmingham where speeches were made by Vince Cable on 16 November and by John Hayes on 17 November.

On 26 October John Hayes gave a speech - "The craft so long to lerne": Skills and their Place in Modern Britain - at the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA). He spoke about the need to continue to promote the teaching and learning of practical skills, even at a time of reduced Government spending, and about his ambition to raise the social and economic status of crafts and those who practice them.

New all-age careers service to launch in England in 2012

On 4 November John Hayes made an announcement about the first all-age careers service in England.

Both young people aged 13-19 and adults will be able to begin accessing new arrangements for careers guidance from September 2011. The service will be fully operational by April 2012. It will build on the best of Next Step and Connexions and provide a fully joined up service for all age groups for the first time.

UK VQ Reform Programme

The formal closure of this programme is planned for 31 December 2010.

An end of programme report has been prepared by the programme office which includes contributions from project leads and colleagues from Wales and Northern Ireland.

After the programme has closed, there are plans to set up a Vocational Qualifications Forum to discuss vocational qualification issues at a UK level.

Work on VQ Reform in England

The VQ Partners Project has been overseeing communications and capacity building for learners, employers, providers, and awarding organisations. By 31 December these audiences should be well on the way to being ready to benefit from the reforms. The projects for providers and employers are planned to continue until the end of March 2011. Learners will receive advice and information about QCF qualifications via Next Step, advisers based in colleges and others working directly with learners.

QCF update

There are now around 7,000 qualifications on the QCF, with around 30,000 units available.

Up to 98% of vocational qualifications will be on the QCF by the end of 2010.

Employer communications – Skillsmart Retail on behalf of the Alliance of Sector Skills Councils

As the work on implementing the changes to vocational qualifications begins to draw to a close, thoughts in employer communications have begun to focus on the legacy and how to communicate the benefits of the new-style qualifications for the future.

Case studies are being collected from key employers from each of the SSCs engaged in the project. The feedback has been very positive about the move to the QCF so far.

“The new QCF qualifications have really helped us achieve our aims. Being able to choose units to build individual certificates and diplomas to national standards, has meant we are able to design our courses around what our staff are telling us they need, rather having to work round a one size fits all structure.”

Kevin Hollingworth, Talent Manager for Matalan

Quotes such as this, show the excellent feedback being collected on the qualifications and show prospective employers how they can benefit, in real-terms, from using the new framework.

To make sure that the positive feedback can be accessed and used by employers, the existing campaign page on the Business Link website will, after a few tweaks, move into the new qualifications guide on the Business Link site in the New Year. This move will also provide a home for the case studies and information being collected.

Employer support offer

Employers wishing to have their own training accredited on the QCF, or interested in becoming an awarding organisation should visit Business Link for information and to view interactive tools on the processes involved.

LSIS Qualifications and Credit Framework (QCF) Support for independent training providers

The support programme for independent training providers aims to support managers and practitioners as they begin to deliver new qualifications from the QCF and use it to develop more flexible and responsive provision.

LSIS is committed to using the expertise that exists in the sector to drive forward QCF implementation and innovation. All training and support will be delivered by independent training providers, managed by RSM Tenon in partnership with the Association of Learning Providers. Almost 40 training providers have been recruited and trained across 9 regions to act as lead providers, ready to provide support which will be tailored to individual providers.

“I believe the QCF Support Programme will raise awareness across all providers and ensure all are ready for the move to QCF qualifications. As qualifications become more responsive to the demands of employers and learners, providers need to keep pace with these developments and this is where the programme can really help.”

Anthony Bromirski, Quality & Group Services Director, RMI remit group (member of consortium of lead providers advising the programme)

This support is available until the end of March 2011. Providers will need to complete an Expression of Interest form (available from LSISQCF@tenoneducationtrainingandskills.com) and subscribe to the programme, which can be paid for with funds allocated to your LSIS Account.

LSIS QCF support for Adult Community Learning and Voluntary and Community Service providers is also underway. Regional QCF lead providers have been recruited and are running the first regional workshops, which have been very well received. 

"I found the workshop very informative with a friendly and supportive atmosphere - it was great to work with other people from different providers. I would definitely recommend the programme to others and am looking forward to attending the next events."

(ACL Curriculum Manager, Leicester Adult Learning and Skills Service)

Providers wishing to join the programme should visit QCF Registration Info.

QCF on the agenda for ALP Members Events

The QCF will be one of the headline items at forthcoming Sector Strategic Issues Meetings being hosted across the country over the next two months. Representatives from Sector Skills Councils will be informing ALP members about the development of QCF qualifications in their individual sectors. Stella Turner, ALP’s Provider Liaison Manager, will highlight the range of support available from LSIS’s new QCF Support Programme, explaining how QCF features in the new Specifications for Apprenticeship Standards for England (SASE).

Skills Funding Agency - update

Focussing Funding on Provision within the QCF

The Skills Funding Agency is continuing to focus funding on qualifications in the QCF and withdraw funding for new starts from qualifications within the National Qualifications Framework (NQF) where an appropriate QCF offer is available. It is the Agency’s intention not to fund vocational qualifications in the NQF beyond the end of March 2011.

Since the start of the process in summer 2010:

• 2,117 NQF qualifications had funding cease for new starts from 31 July 2010


• 1,602 NQF qualifications had funding cease for new starts from 31 December 2010

There is a small group of NQF qualifications where the appropriate QCF offer will not be ready for delivery in 2010. These qualifications will be reviewed in January 2011 and it is anticipated that funding for new starts on these qualifications will cease from 31 March 2011 or the accreditation/operational end date, whichever is sooner.

Flexible Delivery - Unit Funding Trials

The Skills Funding Agency wants to support providers in testing more flexible approaches to delivery of QCF provision which can better support learners accumulating credit and transferring credit towards a target qualification. It is therefore supporting a second phase of unit funding trials during 2010/11, following a first phase which ran over 2008/09 and 2009/10.

19 providers have now been identified to participate in the second phase of trials. Key areas that the providers are looking at encompass engaging hard to reach learners, how credit can enhance and support progression, how co-funding can benefit from unitised provision, and articulation and alignment with progression to higher levels. All providers involved in the trials have made the commitment to use the Agency’s QCF Personal Learner Record. A list of units that are available for the Unit Funding Trials will be published in due course.

Personal Learning Record (PLR)

The QCF Personal Learning Record (PLR) release 4.1 is now available to Awarding Organisations. The system has been designed to meet the regulatory arrangements for the QCF and provide new functions for awarding organisations to upload and maintain achievement data, and undertake credit transfer queries. A number of awarding organisations volunteered to use the test site over the past few weeks and their feedback has been invaluable in ensuring that a PLR is developed that is fully functional. <

Ofqual consultations - Have your say

Ofqual currently has three consultations about its regulatory work.

• From Transition to Transformation: Strategic Regulation of Awarding Organisations and Qualifications sets out how Ofqual proposes to secure the standards and efficiency of qualifications through regulation.



• Consultation on Economic Regulation and the Fee-Capping Process relates to Ofqual’s statutory objective to secure efficiency and value for money in the provision of regulated qualifications and sets out how it proposes to achieve these aims.



• Consultation on Complaints and Appeals for Regulated Qualifications addresses the arrangements Ofqual proposes to put in place in order to handle and investigate both complaints and appeals.

The consultations close on 31 January 2011.

Awarding organisations - update

For the past two years awarding organisations have been focussed on revising and developing new qualifications for the QCF and, while there are some still to be submitted, the bulk of them are now done. As the new qualifications are being delivered in colleges and by training providers, awarding organisations are interested in how they are working. As new enrolments have come in from September, awarding organisations are working with providers to see which flexibilities in the system will be taken up.

This is all being taken forward by providers in a new environment with the BIS Skills Strategy now published and the potential for significant changes to funding approaches and the awarding organisations are working through the new challenges and opportunities presented by the new funding regimes.

Report from Wales

During the last three months seven regional seminars for 14-19 Learning Network Partnerships have been run by Colleges Wales with input from the Credit and Qualifications Framework Wales (CFQW) and Data Services teams. The events have attracted good attendance and largely positive feedback from a mixed audience of providers, including senior managers and front line staff.

Work is underway with Careers Wales to develop a train-the-trainers programme about the QCF for use with advice and guidance workers across Wales. This will raise awareness of the new QCF qualifications and promote high quality advice and guidance on options and progression opportunities. Further work has been undertaken with Careers Wales Online to ensure that up-to-date information about the CQFW and the QCF is available via the web.

A set of CQFW standard texts has been developed for organisations/agencies to include in the own publications. Leaflets for employers, learners and careers advisers are also available.

QCF implementation issues have been supported through task and finish groups and consultant support where required. A group addressing funding issues includes representatives from four DCELLS branches; it has met twice to identify issues and possible solutions. Data Services have agreed to extend the work of the consultant who is promoting/implementing LRS in Wales.

Report from Northern Ireland

As part of the programme of capacity-building the latest round of QCF readiness surveys have been issued to stakeholders in Northern Ireland from awarding organisations, sector skills councils and learning providers. The closing date is 7 December. If you want to take part in this survey please contact Nick Gibson.

Advice for employers interested in recognition of their training continues to be available from Cathy Heathwood of CCEA. A signposting service is being provided by CCEA to employers who wish to have their in-house training recognised. In the longer term, this activity is likely to be subsumed into engagement work as part of the implementation of the National Occupational Standards Strategy in NI.

The UKCES and CCEA have provided an update to NI SSC managers on the implementation of the NOS strategy, in particular the quality assurance process which will ensure that the needs of NI employers have been taken into account when future NOS are developed.

The Northern Ireland Learner Records Service implementation board continues to meet to make these services, including access to the personal learning record, available to advisers, providers and learners in Northern Ireland.

The next meeting of the NI VQRP board in December will consider the progress that has been made and how the reforms will continue to be managed.

For more information the reform programme in Northern Ireland please visit our website or contact Nick Gibson, 028 9025 7973.