Planning the TQS Development Journey (3) – Have you put your own house in order?

The FE sector understands initiatives.

There have been projects, awards, imperatives and opportunities to innovate in the sector for just about as long as anyone can remember.

Most of us who work in, or with, colleges and work-based learning provider organisations know how initiatives usually work.

• You have an idea.
• You find a champion, or a group of supporters.
• You obtain an amount of funding.
• You create a pilot project.
• You use the pilot project to refine your original plans.
• Finally – and somewhere along the line – you roll out a modified and must improved version of the original idea to the whole organisation.
  

If that’s how you’re planning to work with the TQS, there is one thing you can be certain of. Your journey will take a long time.

Why?

Two really important concepts, as far as the TQS is concerned, are consistency and standardisation.

In order to get consistency and standardisation in an organisation, you need systems and processes.

You need your systems and processes to be applied across your organisation. Then you need to track the use of those systems and processes so that you can be confident that they are being implemented.

You need to know, and to be able to demonstrate, that your approaches and ways of working are embedded into the life of your organisation.

Putting your own house in order – as far as the TQS is concerned – is about getting those systems and processes up and running as soon as possible.

You know, for example, that the system for establishing business benefits with employers when you come to discuss training solutions needs to be in place and operating quickly. Without this system in place you will not be able to generate evidence for parts of A2.

You also know that you need a mechanism for measuring the impact of the work you do with employers - actually with employers themselves. You need to be able to do this to help you to address A4 and, of course, A5.

Therefore, take some time to get these things set up now. It will save you time later on. It will also help you to be realistic about when you will be ready to seek certification.