Planning the TQS Development Journey (6) – What about the mileposts?

Your journey towards TQS certification may begin with a single step, and you certainly know where you’re going, but have you identified the mileposts along the way?

There are probably between eight and ten mileposts leading to the major road sign which says: “Start writing your TQS application now.”

Most of these mileposts are attached to gates across the road. That is, you can’t get past the milepost until you open the gate and pass through it. Try to go around the gate and you’re likely to get bogged down in the mud at the roadside.

So how are you doing at getting past the first few mileposts?

Milepost one: We know who our principal stakeholders are.
Congratulations, if you do.

Test this one out immediately by drawing a diagram with your organisation at the centre and the five or six principal stakeholders clustered around you.

Then check that you have a consensus in your organisation that these are your principal stakeholders!

Milepost two: We know who owns the employer.
Great, if you do.

Quite a few provider organisations don’t.

In some cases no one owns the employer, which means no one takes responsibility for managing each employer’s relationship with the organisation.

To check that you are clear about the quality of these relationships, map out an employer journey and see who takes responsibility for ensuring that the employer’s relationship with the organisation is rewarding – for the employer, that is – at each juncture.

• Who takes care of the employer when he or she first works with your organisation?
• Who takes responsibility for making sure the relationship develops?
• Who ensures that the employer is happy with the service received?
• Who builds the relationship for the future?

. . . And lots more . . .

Milepost three: When we make proposals to employers we always deal with business issues as well as training solutions.
Time for a celebration, then.

This is a development issue that takes time to get right. Lots of provider organisations struggle with this one.

You need to be certain you understand your employers’ organisational development issues and the challenges they are facing before you are in a position to recommend any training and development programmes.

Thus, the only way you can demonstrate that your training and qualifications are relevant to your employers is to demonstrate that there is a link between the work you undertake with an employer to the business issues that employer faces.

It’s relatively easy to check how you are progressing with these stages of the journey. Success with most of them is about clarity of thought and writing down what you do – as is success with much of the TQS.

More mileposts next week.

News and Resources – Update

For those readers who don’t already know, I also write a monthly Achieving the TQS Newsletter.

In the newsletter I cover key TQS issues – just like in the blog – but in more detail.

If you would like to receive the newsletter, please visit our website and use the enquiry form to request the next issue.

In the January 2009 issue I have written about the differences between Part A and Part B of the TQS.

If you want to access more of our resources, then I have put a couple of new items up on the QIA Excellence Gateway this month.

One of these items is entitled:

Who should write your Training Quality Standard application?
Take a look at it.

It will help you to create and manage your application writing team. The article is built around a very popular activity we use in our training.

You will also find there:

Twenty things to do before you apply for assessment against the Training Quality Standard.
This article is used by lots of people and it’s the one that people most regularly link with my name. It's a popular piece and the advice in it is acknowledged to be sound.

Planning the TQS Development Journey (5) – Do you know what you want from the TQS?

Many training provider organisations are committed to gaining the TQS. It’s becoming the latest “must-have” in the sector.

The question is why?

There are lots of generalisations about the benefits of the TQS and the need to gain it, but have you really thought carefully about what you hope your certification, when you achieve it, will bring you?

You need to be clear about your reasons for going after the TQS. The first step on your journey to TQS certification is to make sure you know the answer to this question.

Perhaps you have more than one answer. If you do, it’s worth making a list of your reasons for seeking TQS certification.

You might even want to make the list now, before reading on.

Once you have your list check it against the outcomes of a discussion I chaired recently with a group of senior staff in provider organisations.

Noted below are the three main benefits that the participants want to gain from their TQS certification.

How does this list compare with yours?

“Training Quality Standard certification will help us to access funding.”
This is the benefit that most people talk about most often. Quite a few people believe that in the medium term only those who hold the TQS will be able to gain access to significant amounts of funding.

“Training Quality Standard certification will help us with reputation-building.”
This is where the whole issue of differentiation comes into play. What is different about your organisation? How can you promote your organisation as different, and possibly better, than the competition?

“Training Quality Standard certification will help us to build our business.”
This is a statement that is made regularly. People look to TQS certification to help them to build credibility in their marketplace and to encourage employers to choose to work with them.

So how does this list compare with yours?

It really doesn’t matter how close the two lists are. What is important is that you now know why you want the TQS.

You have taken the first step on your development journey.

Planning the TQS Development Journey

You will have noticed that the first four posts under this heading have focused on employers and your relationships with employers.

They haven't given much attention to the Training Quality Standard itself.

That is deliberate.

After all, markets matter most.

Thus, the first four posts covered:

1. What exactly are you trying to do to support employers?
2. First things first (working out the difference your interventions make)
3. Have you put your own house in order?
4. How good are you at communicating with employers?

You need to deal with these and similar issues before you can really make progress towards certification.

The next posts will look at you and your relationship with the Training Quality Standard.

The fifth item in the series will be about the key decisions you need to make when you start to plan your journey.

Planning the TQS Development Journey (4) - How good are you at communicating with employers?

Is your organisation good at communicating?

How would you know?

The simplest way to find out is to ask the people who receive your message what they think of your organisation.

The meaning of all communication is found in the message received, not in the message sent, so you can only check the quality of your communications be talking to those people to whom you are sending your messages.

1. What do employers think of you?
2. Have they received the messages you wanted them to receive?
3. Do they know what you do?
4. Do they know how you can help them?
5. Would they turn to you if they had a business need?
6. Would they turn to you to help them with their people development issues?

The list of questions could be a lot longer, but the answers are more important than the questions.

If you don't know what answers employers would offer, then the chances are you won't review and update the messages you send out. You won't know if you need to amend your messages, because you're not receiving feedback on your communications strategy.

It's really important to find out how you are perceived in your marketplace, because this will shape your whole approach to working with employers. How you are perceived in the marketplace will have an impact on your overall success with employer engagement, too.

If you want to develop strong working relationships with employers - which you need if you are to be successful with the TQS - you must have a communications strategy which ensures that employers receive the messages you want them to receive.

So the question stands: how good are you at communicating with employers?

Success Stories

Hugh Baird College in Bootle, Merseyside is the most recent success story I have to relate.

I have worked with Sue Lowe, Director of Corporate Services, and her team on a range of employer engagement projects, including the TQS.

Hugh Baird College has recently gained certification in the Training Quality Standard Part A plus Part B with excellence in Hospitality and Catering.

I asked Sue about the college’s TQS journey and the challenges Hugh Baird overcame along the road to certification.

What were the key challenges you faced when you first decided to go for the TQS?
“Financing the process, it took time but it was important to do.

We’re a big organisation. We saw that TQS needed a big investment. We needed to train our staff and get every one involved, - not just the lecturers, but student advisers, caretakers, receptionists, security – every one.

We needed to ensure every one was on board because a caretaker could be speaking to an employer just as easily as anyone else, so we had to get it right with every one.

Just as important was how we handled enquiries. We included training for all our front of house staff to do this. We also put in a new telephone system, along with new service standards, for each area of the College, including reception. All the schools in the college revised their service standards, too, and we measure performance every month.

People like having a standard to work to. They can do well and achieve excellence.”

How did you organise writing your application?
“You know we were assessed in September 2008. We began writing in November 2007. I had the first draft done by January 2008 and between January and May this year we kept updating and amending it.

We knew that A0 and A5 were the areas to focus on to get right.

Part B was different and a bit more difficult to complete. We did it though. The feedback we got said it was an excellent Part B application.

How did you prepare for the assessors’ visit?
“There was a lot of preparation but we felt it was vital.

We set out to look after our assessors well.

We had all the evidence there and ready for them. We made sure every one arrived in time for their interview.

We asked the assessors about any issues we could help them with at the end of each day.”

What hints and tips would you like to offer to anyone preparing for assessment?
“Get your application checked by someone who hasn’t worked on it. We had a consultant look at ours. It really helps to do this. The person who reads the application sees all the things you miss when you’re writing it.

Make sure every one, and especially the Principal and the SMT, are fully on board. Take time to get the Principal’s commitment.

We had that commitment. It helped us a lot.

Also be positive about employer engagement – all the time. Keep it in people’s minds. Make sure it’s covered in the Principal’s address, updates in staff newsletters and in staff training sessions.

When the assessors come, make sure all the evidence is there. Organise it. Put it in the room for the assessors.

It makes such a difference to be well prepared.”

You can learn more about Hugh Baird College by visiting the college’s website:

http://www.hughbaird.ac.uk

2009 and the Training Quality Standard

2009 will be an interesting year for the TQS.

It’s the year when the perception of the TQS will change.

It’s also the year when people will start to feel comfortable with the TQS.

What’s so special about 2009?

It’s the year when the Training Quality Standard will become a mainstream development tool. It’s the year when lots of key players will start to expect training provider organisations to have the TQS, rather than thinking that holding the TQS is a novelty.

That’s because:

• those who wanted to be first to achieve a new award have gained the TQS
• those who wanted to be the first in class – the first to gain Part B in….. or the first in the county to gain the TQS have gained certification.

Those who saw gaining the TQS as a means of differentiating themselves from their key competitors have either gained certification or will do so in the next few months.

This means that it is no longer quite so unusual or out of the ordinary to hold TQS certification as it was six months ago.

Before long the focus will be on those organisations which haven’t gained certification. People will be asking questions about training providers that don't hold certification.

Why haven’t they gone for certification yet?
What’s the problem?
Have they tried and failed?

The result of this development?

Achieving the TQS in 2009 will be an important objective for even more training providers.