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Iain Mackinnon

Iain Mackinnon

27 Oct 2009 | 14:48

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Here’s a question to chew over with your colleagues: how long should it take to create a new qualification from scratch?

It’s not an obscure pub quiz question answerable only by a select few (like naming the only US president not to speak English as his first language). And, to the best of my knowledge, there is no national standard defining what the answer should be. So what would you like the answer to be?

For example: a company spots a need not met by current qualifications and contacts its Sector Skills Council to get a new NVQ (or an SVQ in Scotland) designed and approved. How long would it be reasonable to expect that process to take? Six months? A year? More?

If you are the Ministry of Defence – with a need to take the long view as well as responding to today’s emergencies – you might think a year is reasonable. If you are a fast-moving start-up in a fast-changing sector, even six months will feel impossibly long.

I ask because the question has come up in the course of a conversation about the national reform programme for vocational qualifications, as we’re evaluating three of the strands. It seems self-evident that employers will be more likely to play an active role in changing qualifications to meet their needs better if the process can be done quickly, but who’s to say what “quickly” means?

In a different field, we see the otherwise rather peculiar world of Formula One setting a sparkling example by getting its pit-stops down to seven or eight seconds. Expectations are sky-high, and the teams involved have put a lot of effort into getting the time down.

But what’s a reasonable expectation when you want a new qualification? It is a complex business, of course, but so is refuelling a racing car (and, with Formula One, people get hurt if it goes wrong). Do we have high expectations that new qualifications can, and should, be developed quickly while still, of course, maintaining standards? Should we spend real effort polishing the process to get the time down, in the hope that others will join in, for the greater good?

Perhaps we should start by defining a standard for how long it should take. Suggestions?

PS. The president was Martin Van Buren.

Comments

1. At 20:50 on 05 Nov 2009, Rob wrote:

I had this conversation recently, and it is not only the amount of time taken, but the cost which can be prohibitive.

I had a course in corporate wellness endorsed by the Sector Skills Council, and that took 6 months. The course is not a qualification, just an approved course.

I enquired about the possibility of gaining full qualification status for the course, and was told that this would require : -

An approved awarding body (see here for the list http://www.accreditedqualifications.org.uk/awarding-body/awarding+body+directory.seo.aspx#C - the CIPD is one!) would have to sponsor the application. To do this, they would have to be convinced that there was an industry need for the course and that there was sufficient demand for the course.

They would then develop the course which would require significant industry consultation and evidence.

This could take up to a year. However in the case of larger awarding bodies, they can actually have the qualification approved in just 5 days. So the rate limiting step is really the development. And that really is as long as a piece of string.

We deliver a 1-day course for workplace health champions. This is approved by the RSPH and has its place at level 2 on the national qualifications framework. I would imagine that it took considerably less time to produce than, for instance a level 2 NVQ in Team Leading.

If we can develop a decent qualification, there is nothing to stop it being approved in 5 days. The question of how long it takes to develop is one which will depend on the desired outcomes of the training.
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