February 2010
We’ve also identified important and relevant CfA updates for you, where we need your help and input into several different NOS. This is a great opportunity for you to get involved and join us to help shape their future! So keep in touch and remember to let us know what you and your colleagues did, to celebrate your own Apprenticeship week - we’ll publish your activities in the next eBriefings for all to see. If you would like to comment on any of these stories or have a feature of your own to contribute, please contact Helen Gerlach.
If you know somebody who would like to receive our eBriefings, please pass it on or ask them to contact us with their email address. To subscribe to the CfA eBriefing, please email Helen Gerlach. |
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Apprenticeship Week 2010 kicked off on 4th February with an action-packed programme of activities across England. The aim? To celebrate the value and importance of Apprenticeships and apprentices! Go to www.apprenticeships.org.uk to find out more - and to see yourself featured in the next eBriefing, remember to email us your own updates on your very own Apprenticeship week – we’ll publish them in our March edition. |
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The Mayor is in town! Boris Johnson at the LAC As part of National Apprenticeship Week, the London Apprenticeship Company (LAC) were proud to welcome To read more, click here. For media enquiries on the London Apprenticeship Company please contact Rebecca Ash. www.londonapprenticeship.co.uk Images provided courtesy of: www.luluash.co.uk |
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CfA needs you! Surveys, updates and workshops We have a whole host of surveys for you to get involved with to help shape the future of Business & Administration.
Topics covered:
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You’re hired on Teesside! Apprentice of the year A COLLEGE in Teesside is proving that apprenticeships open doors to fulfilling careers after one former student landed a top job at Europe’s largest hospital. 20-year-old Danielle Ashburner studied for her NVQ Level 2 & 3 in Business & Administration at Middlesbrough College before beating off stiff competition to land the role of personal assistant to Helen Boal, Cancer Research Network Manager at The James Cook University Hospital. As well as gaining a new job, Danielle was recently nominated as ‘Apprentice of the Year’ for the Annual College Awards Ceremony by the college’s Business & Administration apprentice co-ordinator Avril Payne, and was successful in winning the award! Danielle chose to do an apprenticeship in Business & Administration due to her love of business and talent for organisation. The NVQ meant that she got to put her skills to use straight away, spending time in an office environment alongside classroom learning. To hear more about this story click here. |
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Did you know that Scottish businesses of all sizes and in all sectors are to be given the opportunity to receive £1,000 to take on a new apprentice? Due to the latest strand of the 'Invest in an Apprentice' scheme, a national marketing campaign was announced ahead of the Jobs Summit, Keep Scotland Working, in Glasgow. The scheme itself is part of ScotAction, an integrated package combining new and improved measures to help individuals and businesses through the recession and will provide skills assistance - including wage subsidies in some circumstances - for training for work, training in work and training from work-to-work to help Scottish people and businesses survive the downturn and thrive when the economy starts to recover. Click here to find out more. |
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Top of the class at Bolton College BOLTON Community College has celebrated its top Apprentices at the annual Apprentice of the Year Awards. Held at the Grosvenor Restaurant, 15 of the College’s best Apprentices were recognised for their hard work and achievements over the last 12 months. Learners received awards from The Mayor of Bolton and Principal, Carol Bannerman, with Lee Nicholls, 25, from Kearsley, Bolton, scooping the coveted ‘Apprentice of the Year’ award and Michael and Paul Butler from Butler Roofing, being named ‘Employer of the Year.’ Carl Messenger, Director of Business Development and Training Services at Bolton Community College, said: “The Annual Apprenticeship Awards is organised during National Apprenticeship Week to celebrate the learners’ achievements and acknowledge the exceptional support given to them by their employers and College tutors.” For more information contact: Amy Martinez at Freshfield PR, Tel: 01772 888400 amy@freshfield.com |
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Apprenticeship Grant for Employers Apprentices aged 16 and 17 The National Apprenticeship Service is providing up to 5,000 Apprenticeship Grants for Employers of 16 and 17 year olds, with a value of £2,500 to encourage employers to take on new 16 and 17 year old apprentices immediately. The £2,500 grant is in addition to the cost of training which is met by the National Apprenticeship Service. The grant is available now! Small and medium sized employers who would not otherwise be in a position to recruit an apprentice and those employers who are able to offer more Apprenticeship places than they would otherwise have done are being specifically targeted. Larger employers can also be supported, where they can demonstrate that they are ‘overtraining’ to support smaller employers in their supply chain or where they can demonstrate additionallity. The grant is available now! It is a short-term, time-limited, measure and is available immediately for employers who are able to offer a job opportunity to an unemployed young person who will need to have been recruited and in work before the end of March 2010. To apply now, employers need to call the National Apprenticeship Service on 08000 150 600 or visit www.apprenticeships.org.uk. |
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Apprenticeship certification in England ***important notice***
We are making excellent progress and expect to be able to despatch all completed certificates out for England and Wales by the 26th February.
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The CfA are currently revising the second edition of the Student Handbooks for the new QCF NVQ's and SVQ's Level 1, 2 and 3 qualifications. The revision has taken place because the review of the Business & Administration National Occupational Standards (NOS) that took place during 2009, has resulted in many changes to existing NOS and has identified the following: *new NOS As part of our ongoing drive to deliver the products you need, we would like to invite you to take part in our survey and the results are essential to inform decisions about the revised Student Handbooks. The survey will take less than five minutes to complete. To submit your feedback and participate, please click here. The survey is completely confidential, so please feel free to be as open and honest as you can! This survey will close on 26th February 2010. If you would like to view the CfA privacy policy please visit www.cfa.uk.com/privacy |
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OCR gains QCF Recognition from the Regulators Functional skills, September 2010 – are you ahead in your preparation? With functional skills qualifications replacing Key Skills from September 2010, it means centres will be unable to register learners for current Key Skills in Communication, Application of Number and ICT after 31 August 2010. So it's good news that you have two more opportunities to join OCR's functional skills pilot. Assessment windows in May and June mean you can still get ahead in your preparation for the qualifications’ full implementation – even if you currently deliver Key Skills with a different awarding body. To register on OCR’s pilot, view the remaining entry windows and download the latest past papers, visit www.ocr.org.uk/functionalskills. Key Skills tests will be available until 2012. Please note that functional skills qualifications are not offered in Wales. In Wales, Key Skills and Basic Skills will be replaced by Essential Skills Wales from September 2010. For more information, please visit: http://www.ocr.org.uk/cymru/english/qualifications/esw/index.htm Functional skills criteria support OCR’s model approach Ofqual’s functional skills qualification and subject criteria support OCR’s pilot assessment approach. In line with OCR’s pilot, open-ended, task-based assessment will form the predominant method of assessment across all three subject areas - English, Maths and ICT. As such, OCR’s assessment approach will fundamentally stay the same from September 2010 – draft specifications will be online imminently at www.ocr.org.uk/functionalskills. Since 2007, OCR has helped centres make nearly 75,000 entries at Entry Level, Level 1 and Level 2. visit OCR |
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A. Yes we are now accepting functional skills as evidence. All you need to do is state that you are enclosing Functional Skills instead of Key Skills.
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Welcome to the February CfA eBriefing. As Apprenticeship Week 2010 is just behind us, we’ll be following in its footsteps by sharing some of our news on apprentices with you. In this edition we have updates on apprentice funding opportunities, explore the successes of two apprentices in the north of England and we even hear about the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, joining in and taking part at the London Apprenticeship Company.
If you would like to submit information to the CfA eBriefing, please contact Helen Gerlach on 020 7091 9620.
© CfA 2010
