The Review Group met again on June 11th and the Review Board had met prior to that.
The Board has signed off the general model and key principles. The former still requires ministerial approval but the key principles are attached.
The review of national Occupational Standards is well under way and the CRCs have been given a briefing session on the PQF Review Project. All CRCs were represented at the briefing and it was apparently well received. The concept of inclusivity and the capacity of staff to develop and progress, career-wise, was welcomed. The impression formed however was that, by and large, conversations about staff training within CRCs were not being had - perhaps understandably so as they still focus on exactly what operating models they are going to utilise.
A number of workstreams have been established as a part of the project.
They include:
- Communications
- Curriculum - including the vocational qualification.
- Delivery model sub-group - how the curriculum will be delivered.
- HR - to cover associated HR issues
- Regulatory framework
The NPS have issued the survey for their PSO staff (reported in NPS News and in the last briefing here on our website) seeking the views of their PSO staff regarding future training and their current qualifications/training. No collated results of this survey are available yet.
It is hoped that, as an 'educational product', the new training arrangements will be exempted from some of the rather tortuous and time-consuming European procurement rules for government projects. Notable here is the usual requirement to advertise the contracts widely across Europe.
There is some urgency about getting the Higher Education specification finalised. This needs to be ready to go to the PQ Review Board on 6th July in order to meet deadlines associated with the required timeline for having the new qualification ready to operate from next April. This meeting will also be considering the ministerial strategy with regard to the new training arrangements.
So far, it is reported that all deadlines have been met and the project is on target. It is also reported that details of how many trained staff will be required in the NPS going forwards will be available in July. This seems a little difficult to square with the work of the E3 workstreams on a new standardised operating model for the NPS, which is unlikely to emerge before the autumn at the earliest. Without an agreed operating model, workforce planning must be well nigh impossible and without workforce planning, one cannot determine how many staff will need to be trained year on year. This is rather fundamental to the development of training contracts with HE providers.
Please click here to see the key principles
Comments and queries to: mmcclelland@napo.org.uk