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Approaches to Training for Registration
Organisations that are committed to staff learning and development, recognise the importance of planning to ensure that their staff can qualify within the registration period. This section looks at how different organisations have taken various different approaches to provide and promote training for registration.
Support and Incentives
Ken Dinwoodie, Richmond Fellowship Scotland
The organisation has its own assessment centre, and all assessors are managers, enabling ongoing assessing and observing of candidates. This has also helped ensure that workers doing very part time hours are not neglected when it comes to qualifications.
Richmond has developed a system of support and incentives to help candidates through SVQs. Workshops cover key knowledge and understanding points, and help develop core skills such as reflective writing. Assessors find that candidates are then much better prepared when it comes to doing the SVQ. As an incentive and recognition of success, candidates are awarded a bonus of £200 on completing the SVQ, and a further £200 two years later.
Richmond find the SVQs are beneficial to the level of service provided - they help staff think more about what they are actually doing, and there has been a marked change in attitude towards SVQs in general, which is also positive. The majority of candidates enjoy the experience. Getting qualified also has a positive impact on retention rates. The turnover for qualified staff is just 2%, and it tends to be the unqualified workers who leave the organisation quickest.
Ken highlighted the importance of good leadership within an organisation, and encouraging the right attidude. "I haven't got time" can't be an acceptable excuse for not encouraging learning and development. It's also important to remember that it's not just candidates who need support through the process - support for managers and assessors is also vital.
Developing Accredited Courses
Angelika Monteux, Camphill
Angelika notes the very specific learning and development needs of Camphill communities, which include elements of care, education, psychology, art and creativity. All these elements were included in inhouse training provided by the organisation. To meet the challenge of registering their workforce, Camphill decided to further develop their training and work towards getting the qualification accredited by a university and recognised by the SSSC.
Camphill worked in partnership with Aberdeen University to develop the Certificate, Diploma and Degree in Curative Education. Much of the development involved ensuring that the assessment of practice requirements were in line with the principles of the SSSCs qualification requirements. In 2003 the Diploma and Degree were recognised as qualifications suitable for registration with the SSSC.
The teaching takes place mainly within Camphill itself, with additional support from the university. All candidates currently work within the Camphill community, gaining experience in parallel with the qualification.