Business News
New Industry Qualifications Framework offers greater opportunities for employers and employees to gain flexible qualifications
Wednesday 18. March 2009 - Companies in the print and paper industries are set to benefit from a new framework for recognising and accrediting qualifications in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The launch of the new Qualifications and Credit Framework (QCF) lies at the heart of a major reform of the vocational qualifications system to drive a more demand-led approach to vocational learning and training.
The QCF has been designed to make the whole qualifications system add value to companies training programmes, and to encourage individual learners to engage in a process of lifelong learning. Qualifications in the QCF will be more relevant to the needs of employers within the print and paper industries, more flexible and accessible for learners, and offer both generic and company specific qualifications.
Commenting on the new Framework, Terry Watts, Chief Executive of Proskills UK, the Sector Skills Council for the print and paper industries says, “This marks a significant step forward in terms of utilising work-based skills training and achieving recognised qualifications. Prior to these reforms, much of the millions of pounds invested by industry into developing employees skills would have gone unrecognised. Now, with the new Qualifications and Credit Framework, these skills and qualifications will stay with the individual throughout his/her working life, and can be tailored and enhanced to suit the current and future requirements of both the business and individual learner, without having to start again from scratch.”
Based around a simple building block structure, the Framework provides a new way of recognising skills and qualifications that meets the needs of employers from the print and paper industries.
Qualifications are broken down into small steps of learning or units, to which a credit value is allocated, giving learners the opportunity to work flexibly and at their own pace, and accumulate credits towards full qualifications over time.
Credit and Level
Every unit and qualification within the framework has a credit value (one credit representing 10 hours, showing how much time it takes to complete) and a Level, ranging from between Entry Level and Level eight (indicating the level of difficulty)
There are three sizes of qualifications in the framework:
Awards (1 to 12 credits)
Certificates (13 to 36 credits)
Diplomas (37 credits or more)
Employer Recognition Programme
Training undertaken by companies that previously went unrecognised, can now be included in the Framework through the Employer Recognition Programme. By allowing employers and training providers alike to add in-house learning as units, there will be a demand-led system that is more responsive to the needs of employers and learners. An additional yet critically important benefit, will be quality assurance for the training that can only be achieved through a nationally recognised system of accreditation.
Adds Terry Watts, “More than 70% of training undertaken by companies in the UK, at a cost of some £32 billion, goes officially unrecognised. A key objective of this new Framework is to capture this in-house training provision and help ensure it is recognised as part of a nationally recognised qualification structure. As the SSC representing the print and paper industries, we therefore want to encourage employers to come forward with their specific in-house training provision and assist in the development of an essential, high quality skills base for the sector. And by bringing the very best in-house and external training provision onto this national framework, we can help the Government achieve its aim to position the UK as a world leader in skills by 2020.”