Your TQS Application Writing Strategy

As most of the readers of this blog know, I spend quite a bit of my time looking at TQS applications before they are sent off to the appropriate certification body.

One of the problems I see again and again in applications is the inconsistency between what has been written in A0 and what is written in A5. To state this a little more directly, what is in A0.3 doesn’t seem to be picked up in A5.0 – or anywhere else in A5 for that matter.

The advice I always give is that:

• The person writing A0 should write A5, too.
• The person writing A0 should write A5 as soon as he or she has finished A0.
• The person writing A0 and A5 should put the two aspects of the application alongside each other to make sure that there is some relationship between what is said in A0 and A5.

Saying something is one thing. Getting people to follow the advice is more difficult.

I find that what people really like is the diagram below.

1. In summary, think about your strategy first.
2. Think about the results you achieve next.
3. Then consider the approaches you use to implement your strategy.

Easy . . . or not?

Is the TQS still top of the agenda?

The fact that I’ve been asked this question several times in the last month seems to suggest that the answer is: no.

More than one hundred and fifty organisations have gained the TQS to date. A lot of those organisations are colleges.

Inevitably this means that for some colleges the TQS is not now top of the agenda. They’ve achieved certification. They have the badge, even if – in some cases – that badge is held provisionally. This means that quite a few colleges can now focus some of their attention on something else.

In many cases funding issues are now top of the agenda. Strategies for increasing income, often from employers, are centre stage.

In those colleges that haven’t gained the TQS, as yet, some serious questions are being asked?

• Do we need the TQS?
• Does anyone say we have to have it?
• If we can’t gain it by the summer should we bother?
• What are other colleges doing?
• What will we lose if we don’t go for certification?

In private training provider organisations the same questions are being asked, along with a couple of others:

• Will be still be able to sub-contract from colleges if we don’t achieve the TQS?
• Can we find a way to go through as a small organisation – because it’s cheaper that way?

Colleges and private training providers are also asking whether they need to think about Part B or if they can concentrate on their Part A activities.

These are all legitimate questions, but finding the answers is problematic.

With the demise of the LSC and the end of the World Class Skills programme, a lot has changed in the sector. On the larger stage the outcome of the general election could change a lot, or not very much. Then there’s the issue of the stance of the Skills Funding Agency or of the National Skills Academies with regard to the TQS and how much influence they have.

So what’s the best way forward?

It’s worth going back to the actual standard and reviewing it. Then the key question is:

• Will working with the TQS help our business?

Any organisation looking to work with employers will be certain to see the value of addressing the key principles in the standard, so every provider organisation can improve its business prospects by using the TQS as an organisational development tool.

Working with the TQS in this context remains a valuable activity, and one that can remain top of the agenda.

Seeking certification is quite a different issue and it is the external environment that will dictate decisions in that context. It will take some weeks or months before it is clear how the environment in the sector will change and develop.

We will all need to wait to find out if TQS certification will be top of the agenda in the autumn and beyond.

The shrewd organisations will probably hedge their bets.

If they can achieve the TQS by the summer they will. If they can’t, they’ll work with the standard and be ready to seek certification if and when they need it.