Fantastic TQS Team - What's the secret?

My series of posts on the TQS team has generated some discussion in TQS training sessions we have been running.

The issues are always about that secret ingredient that makes one team successful and another team – well, less so.

I’m not sure there is a secret, but there are a few things that really help.

Check out if your TQS team would benefit from doing any of the following.

Focus on systems and processes, but also think about their deployment.

It’s important to work on the systems and processes you know you need, and it’s necessary that you do this. You will need an organisational needs analysis (ONA). You will need a way of measuring the impact of what you do in employer organisations. You will need a system for managing the employer’s relationship with your organisation.

It’s essential to your TQS success that you have sound systems and processes for managing your work with employers in place. It’s also important make sure they are used consistently.

The organisations we have worked with which make most progress with the TQS most quickly think about their new or revised systems and processes and how they will be implemented at the same time.

In TQS terms they think about getting sound systems and processes set up, but they think about the deployment of those systems and processes, too.

On quite a few occasions I’ve seen assessment dates put back and applications stalled because the work has been done on getting the right systems and processes devised, but little or no thought has been given to getting them used. As a result, take-up of the new ways of working is piecemeal.

Therefore, the secret ingredient in the TQS mix is not related to getting the right systems and processes in place. It’s about having a plan in place to ensure they will be used

Get the principal/CEO on the TQS team.

If the person at the top on the organisation is actively involved in your TQS development work, progress towards certification will be faster than if it is left to people with less authority to ensure that things happen.

With the most senior person in the organisation on the TQS team things just happen faster. If you have the authority of the person who leads your organisation behind you, it works wonders when you have to deal with the pleas from people who want to carry on doing things as they always have, or to devise their own way of working with employers in their department, or faculty or on a particular site.

If it’s not possible to get the most senior person involved in making sure that your organisation does embrace change, then the second best option is to have someone on the TQS team who can act with the most senior person’s authority.

Check out if you really have senior management support.

Doing this boils down to a very simple question.

Can the TQS team insist?

In lots of provider organisations the TQS team is not in a position to insist the new approaches to managing employer engagement are used.

If this team can’t insist, if the team members can only exhort, then some people will adopt the new approaches, and some won’t. Some will make use of the new CRM system. Some will keep their employer database to themselves. Some people will use the new ONA. Some will just carry on talking to employers about training.

Check out if you have the support that will allow you to insist. Then make sure you insist on changes where they really are necessary.

What do you need to do now?

It’s easy really.

Be clear about what you can do and what you can’t.

Separate the tasks linked to devising new ways of working from the tasks of implementing them.

Get on with the developmental work.

When it comes to implementation and to making sure the systems and processes are embedded, stand back.

Look to the highest levels of management to take the lead here.

Remember that the TQS team knows how to steer the ship, but there aren’t enough team members to man the oars, too.

See also: Your route to TQS certification: adopt a realistic timetable.

Who’s on the TQS (Part) B team?

It’s very easy, when thinking about the TQS, to focus exclusively on the requirements on Part A. After all, you need to achieve Part A in order to be in a position to be certificated for Part B.

Focusing on Part A often means that the people you are going to call on to work on the Part B application are excluded from a lot of your TQS activity. As a result they don’t really know what is expected of them when they come to be involved.

This is causing problems in quite a few provider organisations. Are you facing these same problems?

Problem one: Wrong focus

The person who will lead on a Part B isn’t sufficiently familiar with the TQS requirements to be aware of the differences between TQS Part B and the requirements of assessment and inspection frameworks with which your organisation is more familiar.

When critiquing applications I’ve seen lots that are all about the curriculum, about courses and about learners.

Solution: Plan ahead.

Decide early who will be writing the TQS Part B submissions. Keep these people involved in all your TQS development activities. Make sure they develop their understanding of the requirements of the standard before they are asked to write anything.

Problem two: No close links with the Sector Skills Council (SSC)

Some provider organisations just haven’t made the time to build up good working relationships with the relevant SSCs.

In some cases this means that a Part B application isn’t clear about the SSC’s footprint, so the writers can’t explain to the readers which areas of the SSC’s remit the application covers. People1st, for example, covers fourteen different industries, including hospitality, catering and travel and tourism.

As a result, some providers define their application in terms of their curriculum and not with reference to the SSC.

I’ve seen applications that deal with all aspects of care: childcare, adult care, social work and care in the education world and so on. I’ve also talked to Part B writers who don’t see any reason to change such an application.

I’ve seen applications that muddle the work of Skills for Logistics (freight logistics) and GoSkills (passenger transport).

Solution: Make sure your Part B specialists are familiar with the relevant sector

Whoever is writing your Part B application needs to know that these applications are reviewed by the relevant Sector Skills Council (SSC) once they are submitted, and the SSC’s reviewer will identify issues and questions for the assessors to pick up on.

Therefore, make sure your Part B specialists are familiar with the work of the sector, as it is defined by the SSC, and make sure it is very clear how you are supporting the work of the SSC in the application.

Problem three: You don’t actually have a relationship with the sector

When it comes down to it, some provider organisations are not working closely with the sector where they want to gain Part B certification. Sometimes they think they are; sometimes they know they aren’t.

To have sector expertise you need to know what the issues facing the sector are. You also need to know how you are supporting the sector – as opposed to how you are supporting individual employers – to deal with at least some of those issues.

The sector has local, regional, national, and in some cases, international dimensions. Does your sector expert know how you support your sector at each level, or how your work contributes to the work of the sector at different levels?

Is your sector expert active in the work of the SSC and other relevant bodies, for example, some of the trade associations?

If not, are you sure you have sector expertise?

Solution: Get to know the SSC

If this is your problem, start building relationships with your SSC and with your National Skills Academy (NSA), if you have one. Build up your contacts and your knowledge over time, but start now.

Problem four: Part A and Part B applications are completed in isolation

You know why this happens. There’s the issue of time. There are other priorities. You had good intentions, but somehow co-ordinating everything is more difficult that you anticipated.

As a result the emphasis of the two parts of the application is different. Worse still some of what you say in Part A is contradicted in Part B. Where you have more than one Part B then conflicting statements are sometimes made in the different applications.

Solution: Sequence the writing of Part A and Part B

It really is the solution.

Sort out Part A first and then think about Part B. Your Part B writers will be more confident about their tasks, if they know what has been said about the whole organisation. They will have some guidance in front of them to help them to shape and construct a good Part B submission. They can also share Part B applications within the organisation if there is more than one Part B being written.

So, in the end there is a lot you can do to support your Part B writers. The most important thing to do is to bring them into the TQS team as soon as possible.

How about starting that process today?

See also: What's the real difference between Part A and Part B of the TQS?

TQS Assessment – Seize the opportunity!

Just about every one in the FE world will have heard, by now, that the deadline concerning conditional certification has been changed. You now have more time to gain conditional certification than you thought you did.

I’ve already had ‘phone calls from people in colleges saying:

“It’s great. We can take things at a more leisurely pace now.”

I have no problem with this.

After all, people have always been able to choose the pace at which they travel the road to TQS certification.

However, before putting the TQS on the back burner it’s worth remembering that TQS success is not just about having sound systems and processes set up. It’s about operating them, too.

Take your time

You need time – and quite a bit of it – to do justice to your application.
Our customers tend to take between four and seven months to write their applications.

Why?

It’s because they change things about their practice as they go along. They also give themselves time to review, edit, and then revise their applications – often more than once.

You will get a lot more out of the development process if you take your time with it. The benefits you gain will be more far reaching, and systems and processes you set up will be more robust, if you take the time to make sure they work and that the deliver the outcomes and benefits you are looking for.

So what should you be doing now the heat is off?

Put the heat back on.

Stick to your original TQS schedule for getting your application written.

Then you will have time for all the reworks and rewrites. You’ll also have time to improve your approach to employer engagement before it comes under the assessors’ scrutiny.

See also: Goodbye to the early adopters

Is your TQS team really working as a team?

You created a team when you first started work on the TQS. Perhaps you have a steering group. Perhaps you have a monitoring group.

However you have chosen to divide up the TQS responsibilities, is every one working together to achieve the TQS?

If your organisation is like most provider organisations, then your team members are probably working in their own ways and focusing on the things that are important to them. Maybe they’re not really working on the TQS much - except when you have your TQS meetings.

Here are three things to do to help your team to work better together.

Work together on defining the key management processes

You need to work out the key processes for managing your employer/customer journey. Do this as a team if that will work. If not, bring the team together to agree and to approve the processes which have been devised.

Make it clear that approval of a process also entails getting involved in ensuring that people use the process.

For example, if the TQS team agrees that all employer information is to be recorded on your CRM, then they must share the responsibility for making sure this happens.

Create a timetable of tasks to be completed

When you begin work on the TQS and you start to make your list of what needs to be done, you will probably be overwhelmed by all the things that end up on the list.

Other people will feel the same way, too.

Above all you need to help every one else to avoid that feeling of being overwhelmed, because you want the other members of the team to take action. People who are overwhelmed by a task are unlikely to take action, so it’s in your own interests to help them to keep control of their involvement with the TQS development work.

Therefore, you need a timetable of tasks, and agreement within the team, about what will be done when.

Make sure the list of activities is realistic. It’s very easy to set up a timetable that is just too demanding. Once your team members fall behind, they will become demoralised and give up. They’ll stop attending team meetings and just quietly drop out of things.

Use your TQS team meetings to check progress and to find ways of helping the TQS team to meet deadlines and complete tasks on time.

Give feedback on progress

When people are working on something new they need to know how they’re doing. When people are being asked to take on extra roles and extra tasks they need to know that they are making progress with the TQS and that their efforts are appreciated.

Make sure you monitor what is happening and take steps to help people to avoid mistakes. This means that when you give feedback on progress, your comments will be positive. You will be able to reinforce success.

Every one likes to be associated with success, so this will help your organisation to make the progress you know is needed.

Keeping a team together, even a motivated and committed team, takes time and effort. Your progress towards TQS certification will be faster and smoother if you think about how the TQS journey should be managed as well as about how to achieve the TQS itself.

See also:

Three Questions – Karen Kimberley
Preparing the senior team