March 2010
Spring has sprung – well, almost! To help keep you motivated until the leaves are on the trees, take a look at some of our inspiring stories from National Apprenticeship Week and catch up with Business & Administration training providers up and down the UK from Great Yarmouth to West Cheshire. This month, EDI is pleased to announce the launch of its new suite of administration qualifications on the Qualifications Credit Framework (QCF) and OCR’s new English, Maths and ICT Functional Skills draft Centre Handbook and sample assessment materials are now available online. We’ll be back next month with more updates from the world of Business & Administration and in the meantime, if you would like to comment on any of these stories or have a feature of your own to contribute, please contact Helen Gerlach. Remember to keep sending us your Apprenticeship Case Studies and we’ll feature you in the next eBriefing!
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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ETS Celebrates National Apprenticeship Week On Tuesday 2nd February 2010, as part of a number of regional events to contribute to the Learning and Skills Council’s National Apprenticeship week, Education and Training Skills (ETS) held their Annual Apprentice of the Year Awards at the Buckerell Lodge Hotel, Exeter. These awards celebrated the achievement and outstanding commitment of their learners who had participated in apprenticeships over the last year. Education and Training Skills also acknowledged the contribution to apprenticeships made by employers with their Employer of the Year Awards. Roz May, ETS’s General Manager said: “without the commitment of employers we could not deliver the training to allow apprentices to achieve.” And the winners were: To read more about each winner, please click here.
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West Cheshire College has established itself as one of the leading Colleges to employ in-house apprentices and to ‘practise what it preaches’; therefore in September 2009 they launched their Apprenticeship Cadet Scheme which is destined to be a ground-breaking approach to in-house training. This pilot scheme has initially employed six apprentices for twelve months to undertake the apprenticeship framework for Business Administration, as well as a full package of further qualifications and training. The apprentices will move three times, spending four months in various College areas which include Marketing, Property & Operations, College Information Systems and Customer Services as well as some curriculum areas. The areas were selected as they can both support and benefit from an apprentice. Each apprentice has been assigned a mentor to support them throughout the programme. These mentors are attending training themselves as well as working closely with Managers, Apprentice Co-ordinators and Assessors to ensure the success of this pilot. All areas have been provided with a clear and comprehensive guide as to what skills and knowledge the apprentices need to develop to enable them to become thoroughly competent in business and administration. Click here to read about the Apprentice benefits. To find out more about West Cheshire College go to www.west-cheshire.ac.uk |
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| Alert for all training managers
Training Managers...have you got December 2010 in your diary?
Trainers will only attain professional associate status by achieving the CTLLS qualification (or professional recognition or legacy qualifications). The PTLLS award will not be sufficient to satisfy long term regulation or contractual requirements. For more information relevant to work based learning providers go to: www.lluk.org/feworkforcereforms.htm visit website |
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Great Yarmouth says “hello” to Apprentice Employers
More than 50 employers were urged to employee trainees to benefit their workforce and future business success and tap into the limited offer to help cover wage costs. Many employers registered their interest with college staff and took away information about the opportunities for their businesses from the scheme.
To find out more, please click here. |
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| OCR’s Functional Skills
We have been successfully running a three year functional skills pilot, helping centres make over 90,000 entries in all three subjects at Entry Level, Level 1 and Level 2. Open ended, task based assessment is used; an approach supported by the revised functional skills qualification and subject criteria published by Ofqual. |
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On the QCF each unit has a credit value. This represents how long the learning element will take to complete with each credit being equal to 10 hours of study. A combination of these leads to a specific award at the relevant level. Guided learning hours will still exist to indicate how much of the notional learning time is guided by a lecturer, tutor or teacher. In order to achieve the qualification at a particular level, learners must achieve units whose total credit value equals or exceeds that required for that level. Learners may wish to just complete individual units, accumulate credit and claim a qualification or not claim for a specific qualification but ‘bank’ the credits for use against a qualification in the future. Specialist units including Text Production and Audio Transcription have been integrated into the suite and therefore can be taken as standalone units. All Certificates and Diplomas contain ICT units imported from e-Skills covering areas including word processing, spreadsheets, presentation software and databases. An Award and Certificate are available at level 1 with an Award, Certificate and Diploma available at levels 2 and 3. If you would like more information about the new Business Administration and Practice suite, please contact Customer Enquiries enquiries@ediplc.com or visit www.ediplc.com. |
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Apprenticeship Standards for England
Additionally, the Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning (ASCL) Act stipulates that compliance of SASE will be a statutory requirement. The link below shows you the first version of the SASE which is issued on a non-statutory basis for information. A final version will be available from October 2010, taking full effect effect from 6th April 2011. All Business & Adminstration frameworks will need to be updated in line with the SASE. We hope to provide more information on the timescales of this review available for you, in future eBriefings. Stay with us until then! For more information click here
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BAF Diploma Learners The DCSF has released the number of learners on Diploma courses from September 2009. LA-level funding returns for the Diploma Formula Grant, submitted by local authorities, in November 2009, showed the total number of Diploma students enrolled in the lines of learning that are being delivered is 36,441. Find out more at www.baf-diploma.org.uk Good Practice - BAF Diploma delivery To help you get up to speed with good practice and in delivering the BAF Diploma, the FSSC and SELLLN are holding a FREE one-day staff development event on this very theme. Taking place on Friday 23 April 2010 from 9:30 - 15:00, at King's College, London, the varied programme will include speakers from the Chambers of Commerce, the FSSC, the Council for Administration (CfA), Lincolnshire 14-19 Partnership, London South Bank University, and Specialist Schools and Academies Trust (SSAT). The event will also include employers who have been involved in curriculum development and there will be an opportunity to meet colleagues in the sector and to network. Lunch is also provided.
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A. The revised Business & Administration QCF NVQs, which are due out in August 2010 are in their final stages of development. We expect these qualifications to be available from awarding organisations within the next couple of months. However, to help support the implementation of the new Business & Administration QCF NVQs, the CfA are planning to hold events to introduce the new Business & Administration National Occupational Standards (NOS) and QCF qualifications during the spring of 2010. Please look out for events in your area in future editions of the eBriefing.
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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. |
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By December 2010, all staff working in teaching, training and related areas within work based learning and the Further Education Sector, will need to be qualified or working towards an SVUK endorsed qualification (such as PTLLS/CTLLS/DTLLS) or another form of professional recognition. 
Q. The CfA has received many queries about the new NVQs which are due out in August 2010.If you would like to submit information to the CfA eBriefing, please contact Helen Gerlach on 020 7091 9620.
© CfA 2010
