January 2010
Snow, snow and more snow! If you’re facing the daily challenge of travelling into work or reading this from the comfort of your home office, we’d like to send you a warm winter welcome to our first CfA eBriefing of this new decade to keep you inspired and full of energy for the year ahead. A new year also brings new faces to the CfA, we need your continued support with a Business Contingency Planning project and you’ll see that in the run up to Apprenticeship Week, we have plenty of focus on apprentices this month with thanks to our contributors for their Case Studies and updates. So keep in touch and remember to let us know what you are doing to celebrate your own Apprenticeship week - we’ll publish your activities in the March eBriefing 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. |
||||||||||||||
Apprenticeship certification in England ***important notice***
Additionally, the CfA have used all of the certificates in our reserves and as a result, have a substantial backlog of certificates waiting to be printed. Thank you for your understanding and patience at this time. |
||||||||||||||
Emergency! Business Contingency Planning
We would like to thank our readers and their contacts who have been in touch with regards to the Business Contingency Planning NOS project specifically for SMEs, that provides them with relevant skills in terms of Resilience, Business Continuity and Disaster Planning. With the recent heavy snowfalls, we certainly need to keep this in mind! If you missed the Focus Group on 7th January or would like more information about the consultation itself, please contact Uta Sempf. |
||||||||||||||
Apprenticeship Week (1st-5th February 2010) Ready, steady, go! In this cold and wintry weather, it’s great to be able to think ahead and look forward to events and activities that are coming up on the calendar. We’d love to hear from you to find out what you are doing to celebrate the achievements of apprentices you know and we’ll publish your stories and updates in the March eBriefing. So come on, get in touch and let us know more! Visit Apprenticeship website |
||||||||||||||
|
South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has used apprentices in a variety of roles across the NHS and worked with GP surgeries to provide medical receptionists through their extensive programme. As the NHS nationally has a challenge to recruit to clinical coders positions, South Tees has used the apprenticeship programme to successfully fill these positions and effectively given the candidates a career progression framework that goes from a NHS Band 1 to a Band 4. Please contact Claudia Godfrey, vocational training manager South Tees
Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust on telephone 01642 854744 for further information on how your NHS Foundation Trust could also benefit from this approach. |
||||||||||||||
|
As one of six apprentices recently recruited by Northumberland Fire and Rescue Service, 19 year old Cheryl Turnbull from Amble has got her foot firmly on the first rung of the career ladder. Landing a job in the Service’s Human Resources department, Cheryl is now part of a team which supports the recruitment, appointment and training of all fire and rescue service employees. These include 370 operational personnel such as full-time and retained fire fighters, 70 people working in community safety and 50 support staff. Cheryl is undertaking an Advanced Apprenticeship in Business and Administration, after a local newspaper advert for the position caught her eye. Making a good impression at the interview stage, she was soon offered the job and since then has never looked back. |
||||||||||||||
|
The Agricultural Steering Group was due to meet on the 6th January to discuss and agree the revised Standard. Due to the adverse weather conditions however, this meeting had to be postponed to a later date. In the meantime, we are pleased to confirm that the draft Standard has been sent out by email to the Steering committee, for comments and recommendations on which the draft QCF unit will be based. An alternative date for the next Steering Group meeting will be announced shortly. For more information please contact Uta Sempf at the CfA. |
||||||||||||||
A focus on … new faces in Development Matthew Street, Standards and Qualifications Manager I joined the CfA in October 2009 and my few short months here have passed by amazingly quickly! My responsibilities within the CfA include managing the Young Apprenticeship programme, reviewing a range of specialist Business & Administration standards, developing qualification specifications to fit into the Apprenticeship programme and providing support for qualifications developed by different awarding organisations. Business & Administration is a new area for me, so it’s been a steep learning curve in building up my knowledge of the skills and competences needed to operate effectively in the myriad of roles covered by CfA. It’s been enjoyable and I’ve learnt a lot already. I previously worked for another pan-sector standards setting body (the Management Standards Centre), which has helped immensely, particularly with understanding all the acronyms used in the ‘skills’ world. Outside of work, I love taking holidays to far-flung corners of the globe and planning where to visit next. I also enjoy cooking (and eating) all sorts of dishes, and getting home to a warm house in the cold winter months! For questions relating to Young Apprenticeships and the CfA Business & Administration standards contact Matthew. And Jonathan Webb, Research and Projects Officer I joined the CfA in October 2009. My main role is to provide research and administrative support to the Development Team. I assist in a variety of projects, including the NOS Review, Young Apprenticeships, and with new research projects. Prior to working here at the CfA, I was with a political research organisation based in London, and a research NGO (Non-governmental office) in Berlin, which was a great experience. Outside of work, I enjoy reading, travelling and cricket. As I’m new to the world of standards and qualifications, it’s quite a challenging role to be in at the moment - the work is really interesting, and I look forward to solving new challenges in the future. For assistance with the NOS Review or on research projects, contact Jonathan directly. |
||||||||||||||
BAMA Level 2 – Important information As from 1 December 2009, centres that wish to deliver BAMA Level 2 are advised to register with the CfA. As BAMA Level 2 is a new framework, we need you to re-register your centre details even though you may have already registered as a BAMA Level 3 centre previously. For centres who wish to attract funding, please note that you must also register with the contract manager at the SDS (Skills Development Scotland) after registering with the CfA. For centres who do not wish to attract funding, you are asked to produce proof that you are registered with a recognised Awarding Body in Scotland. Please submit all your centre registration details to Charmaine Ximines at the CfA who processes all centre registrations for you. We look forward to hearing from you. email Charmaine |
||||||||||||||
Delivering Diplomas Conference and Awards The Fifth National Delivering Diplomas conference takes place at the Lakeside Conference Centre, Aston University, Birmingham on Thursday 18th March 2010. Focusing on successful Diploma delivery, sustaining partnerships, engagement and enthusiasm, this event will ensure that all consortia involved in delivering the Diploma the best structures and systems in place to make sure that their offer is of the utmost quality. You can find out more by going to www.deliveringdiplomas.com or by clicking here. And, if you know someone who has excelled in their work with the Diploma, then why not nominate them for the Diploma awards? Delivering Diplomas magazine and its sister title SecEd are pleased to announce that the Delivering Diplomas Awards 2010 are now open for entries, please click here. These Awards are supported exclusively by the Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency and will be held at the prestigious Landmark Hotel in London on Friday, 26th March, 2010. Nominations can be made in five categories and the deadline for entries is 31st January, 2010. Please click here to find out more and make your nomination! |
||||||||||||||
OCR gains QCF Recognition from the Regulators OCR has received full recognition to operate in the Qualifications and Credit Framework (QCF). The qualifications regulators, Ofqual, DCELLS and CCEA, confirmed QCF recognition for OCR on 17 November 2009. This is good news for OCR as it means they can submit new qualifications that will have an accreditation period of up to five years from the date of qualification launch. It also means that they can extend the accreditation end dates for qualifications already on the QCF. This is also good for centres and learners as it means they can continue to opt for the courses they like. For more information about the QCF please read the new OCR publication QCF Spotlight, which explains how the transfer of OCR'S existing vocational qualifications from the National Qualifications Framework (NQF) to the QCF is being achieved in time for the September 2010 deadline. visit OCR |
||||||||||||||
|
A. The Apprenticeship Frameworks for England and Wales are going to be re-written to take account of the QCF and resulting changes. This is likely to reach centres around April 2010, giving some time before the new Frameworks become operational. We don’t yet have any details of the Framework content, but it is likely to be similar to the current Framework, in that it will have a competence qualification (to replace the NVQ), a technical qualification, and specific requirements for functional skills. The qualifications are currently being developed by CfA and the Awarding Organisations involved in Business & Administration. If you have any questions on the above Apprenticeship Frameworks please contact us on 020 7091 962
|
||||||||||||||
If you no longer wish to receive these eBriefings please click here to email us with your name and organisation. The CfA is not responsible for the content of any external links from this newsletter. The Council for Administration is a registered charity, No 1095 809. |
||||||||||||||
If you would like to submit information to the CfA eBriefing, please contact Helen Gerlach on 020 7091 9620.
© CfA 2009
