September 2009
Autumn is here and, rested and relaxed from your summer break, we welcome you to your CfA September eBriefing, for the most up-to-date and relevant news and information in the Business & Administration field. We’re pleased to say that our conference 2009 is booking up fast so act now to reserve your space and join us in November by registering now. This month we bring you a snapshot on the CfA from our Chief Executive, Jenny Hewell, and we also look at the Gordon Yates’s Secslife survey, which is the most important and valuable insight into the life of those in administration and something not to be missed. Take part and you could win £25 worth of Amazon vouchers. Please scroll down to see more news about the Business & Administration sector and here’s to a smashing September! If you would like to comment on any of these stories or have a feature of your own to contribute, please contact Helen Gerlach.
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Book now! Be there at the first at CfA conference 2009 Friday 27th November 2009 We are pleased to announce that bookings are already underway for conference 2009 ‘A focus on Change’, taking place on Friday 27th November at the NCSL Learning & Conference Centre, Nottingham. Sponsored by – EDI, OCR and the IAM, conference 2009 focuses on theimportance of Business & Administration skills against the background of the changing landscape in UK vocational education. Key issues being discussed are:
What’s in it for me?
For further details on speakers and to see who needs to attend and to book your place visitwww.cfa.uk.com/products/conference. We look forward to seeing you there! visit the CfA website |
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A focus on... Jenny Hewell, CEO I can’t tell you how lucky I am: I have a job that I really love, an incredible team that makes work a truly pleasurable activity and a wider group of colleagues - both in the UK and abroad - who have helped to inspire the development of the CfA and make it what it is today. So what does the CfA do? Well, I expect most of you know that it’s the national council responsible for delivering the skills agenda and developing standards, qualifications and apprenticeship frameworks in business, administration and governance. These skills are needed in every single organisation in the UK, regardless of size, type and sector so we have a lot to do to make our voice heard, on a very limited resource. What you may not know is that the CfA is also a registered charity. Its object is to advance education by promoting training, skills and qualifications. So we very definitely exist to help you. I always want us to do a good job and don’t very often get the opportunity to ask you how we could improve. So I am asking you now: Can we help you more? And if so, how? Times are hard for us all but I know, together, we never forget how important the business, administration and governance skill set is for the UK. So I hope an advanced ‘thank you’ is in order. I’ll collect all your feedback at info@cfa.uk.com until the end of September and share the analysis with you later in the year. Looking forward to hearing from you soon.
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Specialist Standards Projects - Agriculture and Legal Administration The CfA are pleased to be working with a range of industry experts on projects running until summer 2010. The extensive range of experts includes professional bodies, employers and sector skills councils (SSCs) as we review and update the specialist standards for agricultural and legal administration (including case workers). At the end of these projects, the revised standards will be submitted for approval to UK NOS panel. If you are an employer, administrator or provider working within these specialist areas and would like more information on them and on how to get involved in these projects, please contact Kelly Saliba, Director of Development at the CfA on 020 7091 9620. Download LSC guidance here |
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Back to School – Incredible offer on all CfA Handbooks
The CfA student handbooks, at Levels 1,2 & 3, provide in-depth information based on the Business & Administration 2007 National Occupational Standards, which will continue to be studied by students until 2012. Since their publication in 2007, these handbooks have become a vital and respected resource to candidates and centres offering Business & Administration. Each chapter at every level has been carefully developed in line with the Standards. Each handbook is designed to provide crucial support to learners working towards NVQs, SVQs, Apprenticeships, Technical Certificates and other related vocational qualifications and to help their trainers and assessors too. To get your copies of the Student Handbook please click here to visit the CfA online shop. |
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On the 9th September the CfA held its first TQS Awareness Day to help applicants be successful with their application. This was run by CFE (Centre for Excellence) together with a TQS assessor and kindly hosted by Newham College of Further Education in East London. The TQS is a very tough standard to achieve. During the Awareness Day, delegates had the opportunity to ask the TQS assessors directly about the application process itself. Some delegates were applying for Part A, some for Part A and Part B and others for Part B only and all delegates appreciated the degree of difficulty their organisation had to go through in order to achieve the TQS status. Despite this, all delegates were able to discuss their particular challenges with the application and agreed that the day provided them with invaluable information and cleared up many grey areas. This event was a ‘one-off’ LSC/CFE funded event. Due to the popularity of the event, the CfA is considering holding similar, future events with an admission/attendance contribution from each delegate. If you are a provider or an employer that would like to take part in future events, please contact Uta Sempf directly. |
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Modern Apprenticeships – an overview Modern Apprenticeships (MAs) offer those over 16 years of age, paid employment combined with the opportunity to train for jobs at craft, technician and management level. Developed by Sector Skills Councils (SSCs) and Sector Skills Bodies (SSBs), the SSCs and SSBs consult with employers and key partners in their sector to produce a training programme which meets the needs of employers. In Scotland, there are more than 70 different MA Frameworks and they are all designed to deliver a training package around a minimum standard of competence defined by employers through SSCs / SSBs. |
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Win free Amazon vouchers with SecsLife Calling all administration employers and employees! Win yourself a fantastic £25 worth of Amazon vouchers, simply by taking time to complete the annual SecsLife survey from Gordon Yates, in partnership with the Guardian.
Completing the survey usually takes around ten minutes of your time. The research is being conducted in accordance with the UK Market Research Society's Code of Conduct and as a gesture of appreciation, there are ten £25 amazon.co.uk vouchers to give away. To enter the free draw, please complete your contact details at the end of the questionnaire. Please go to www.secslife.org/employee to take part now or, if your boss would like to take part, it’s www.secslife.org/employer! Highlights of the findings will be shared with participants in December 2009. Full results will be published on www.secslife.com in January 2010.
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The European Credit system for Vocational Education and Training (ECVET) is a system which aims to accredit vocational learning across Europe. This will give people greater control over their individual learning experiences and make it more attractive to move between different countries and learning environments. One of the overall aims of ECVET is to facilitate mobility, assessment and credit transfer of the qualifications of European citizens. A basic condition for its success therefore, is that it is transparent and easily understood by its end-users: education and training providers, employers and the individual citizen him/herself. In this partnership, focus will be on the use of ECVET in initial vocational education and training; how ECVET can provide relevant institutions with a tool to facilitate learner mobility across the Member States. The challenge is that vital knowledge and experience is shared and that common methods are developed in order to make ECVET a European reality as a credit transfer system in line with ECT. |
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OCR Administration (Business Professional) (QCF) OCR is pleased to announce the launch of its new suite of Administration (Business Professional) (QCF) qualifications. The suite is designed to accredit learners’ knowledge and skills in a wide range of modern administrative functions, with an Award, Certificate and Diploma at each of Levels 1 to 4. The range of qualification sizes and levels means that there will be a suitable qualification for all learners, both those seeking work and those already in employment wishing to develop their skills. Competence in administration is vital in many job roles. The core units of each qualification reflect vital knowledge and skills, with a wide range of possible optional units covering the range and depth of all areas of administration. Examples of available units include Written Business Communication, Career Planning in Administration, Organise a Business Event, Chair a Meeting and Handling Mail. Text processing units including Text Production, Audio Transcription, Business Presentations and Speed Keying are also available as options for most of the qualifications. For more details, please see the OCR website or contact the OCR Customer Contact Centre on 024 7685 1509. Business Skills - extension OCR's Business Skills qualifications have had their accreditation extended until 31/07/2010. Please visit the OCR website for further information regarding these qualifications. |
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A. Yes. The technical certificate does not cover all of the knowledge required for the NVQ. Also as some technical certificates have pass rates at 60%, 40% of the Therefore the knowledge required as part of the NVQ needs to be assessed during the delivery of the NVQ in addition to the technical certificate.
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Well, we said that autumn is here and this lets you benefit from the amazing CfA ‘Back to School’ handbook offer. Now available from just £8.66, whether you are a student or a centre looking to provide texts for candidates this incredible deal mustn’t be missed.
This is the UK’s largest annual support staff survey looking at trends in administration, salary scales, patterns of employment and more, going back over 22 years. During that time, many thousands of skilled support staff and employers have given their own opinions for us all to gain a fascinating insight into this vitally important sector.
If you would like to submit information to the CfA eBriefing, please contact Helen Gerlach on 020 7091 9620.
© CfA 2009
