Happy New Year! And welcome back. After a much enjoyed break over the festive period, the CfA team are back in the office and looking forward to another successful year.

2007 promises to be an interesting year both in the Business & Administration sector and in the development of vocational education as a whole. As ever, the CfA eBriefing will ensure you are kept up-to-date with all the latest developments.

If you no longer wish to receive these eBriefings please click here to email us with your name and organisation, placing 'unsubscribe' in the subject heading.

Incremental change is here

This year sees the introduction of a new system of updating the Business & Administration National Occupation Standards. Instead of delivering a whole new set of standards every few years, the CfA will now operate an annual program of Incremental Change.

This year, there has been significant changes to the core, optional and imported units and 40% of the existing units have been amended. In addition, the CfA have been working with Awarding Bodies to produce brand new Evidence Requirements giving you clearer guidance as to the work that your candidates need to produce.

Incremental change will be presented to you through a series of half-day events.
Presented by Margaret Barkway and the authors of the standards, the CfA development team, the events will take place at six venues across the UK in March 2007.

Dates have yet to be confirmed, but in the weeks beginning 12th & 19th March, events will be held in Belfast, Edinburgh, London, Cardiff, Birmingham and Leeds. Further details and a booking form will be sent out shortly and will be available on our website.

We are expecting demand to be high so if you would like to reserve your place and ensure that you receive further notification, please email Sonia Chandnani with your name, organisation and which town you would like to attend.

Appeal for Student Members

The CfA Board of Trustees is keen that the views of students/trainees taking Apprenticeships in Business & Administration, are taken into account when reviewing existing programmes and planning for future initiatives. One way in which we intend to do this is by appointing student Members to the Membership Group of CfA.

CfA Members are required to attend two meetings per annum, to advise on both the strategic and operational direction of the organisation. A more detailed "Members Rationale" is available upon request. Appointment to this post requires a minimum commitment of 12 months.

Training Providers and employers are invited to nominate trainees who they believe will be able to represent their own views and those of their colleagues, in meetings and through written consultations, and who will really add value to the CfA through being a Student Member.

Nominations should be forwarded to Andrew Young, Director of Operations.

CfA welcomes Anna Lemmon

This week, we welcome Anna Lemmon to the CfA team. Anna has come on board as Policy Advisor and will be focusing on policy and product development.

Anna joins us from QCA (Qualifications and Curriculum Authority), where she has worked for the last 7 years. Most recently, her role at the QCA was Advisor for Business Education and Critical Thinking. This role involved leading on qualification criteria development, accreditation and monitoring the state of English business education.

Anna’s specialism lies in 11-19 education where she has teaching and management experience in schools and colleges across the UK and in Europe. Anna has taught and delivered both academic and vocational courses and has written a range of training materials.

Jenny Hewell, CEO at the CfA commented: "I am delighted to welcome Anna. She brings a wealth of experience from regulating business studies qualifications at QCA and will be a valued addition to the CfA team."

Welcome on board, Anna!

CfA welcomes Les Collett

Also, officially joining the CfA team this month is Les Collett. Les has been working with us on a temporary basis in the finance division for the last four months and has just accepted the permanent position of Finance Officer.

Les’ previous role was for International Airline Services (KLM), where he worked for the past five years in a finance role.

Originally from South Africa, Les came to the UK to travel and experience life overseas in sunny old England. Despite finding out that England isn’t actually so sunny; he has remained here ever since – we are certainly glad he did!

Jenny Hewell, commented: "Les has proven to be a great asset to the operations team. He has extensive experience in financial control and has been working well with our customers."

Welcome on board, Les!

YA cohort 4 application update

The proposal process for the allocation of 9000 new Young Apprenticeship places is now under way. The submission deadline for Business & Administration proposals is 16th February 2007.

Regional LSCs will be responsible for scoring proposals and awarding contracts to partnerships, however you will need to seek CfA endorsement to ensure a quality model has initially been proposed. The submission deadline to the CfA is 9th February. Proposals will be returned to partnerships by 13th February with our final endorsement.

To ensure this process runs smoothly and timely, the CfA would suggest that partnerships involve us in the development of proposals prior to 9th February. For further details please contact Richard Thompson on 020 7091 9626 or for proposal documentation go to www.cfa.uk.com/ya

City & Guilds Technical Certificate review

City & Guilds is currently reviewing their Diplomas in Business Administration (recognised as
Technical Certificates in the Business & Administration Apprenticeship framework).

After receiving extensive feedback from a wide range of stakeholders we felt that there was definite room for improvement and so a focus group of representatives from Training Providers, Colleges and employers was held in December 2006 to look at how we could improve these qualifications. This has lead to some very exciting proposed changes to these qualifications, if you would like to find out more please click here.

Employer Relations Update

Rob Jefferson, our Employer Relations Manager is looking forward to meeting and working with more employers in 2007. “We have now established some very good working links with companies and organisations who work closely with employers which we intend to build on in 2007” said Rob as he outlined his plans for the coming year.

“I already have 20 visits arranged for January and February, including meetings with employers in Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland. I am very much looking forward to meeting new people, telling them about the work of CfA and finding out about their particular skills needs in Business & Administration”.

If you are an employer in Northern Ireland, Scotland or Wales, and would like Rob to drop by when he is in your area, please contact him on rob.jefferson@cfa.uk.com or 020 7091 9620.