Three Questions – The Experience of Assessment

Wakefield College has recently gained TQS certification for Part A and for Part B (Logistics).

Services to Business, the business arm of Wakefield, led the college towards its TQS success and managed the college’s TQS development journey.

Every one at Wakefield College is absolutely delighted with the achievement.

As the college’s literature says: “We are proud of being acknowledged as one of the top training providers in the UK, having received the Training Quality Standard.”

I spoke to Janet Hilton, Services to Business Market Development Manager at Wakefield College recently, about the college’s experience of assessment. Janet offered lots of good advice and useful insights into the TQS assessment process.

How long did it take you to produce your application?
“From start to finish it took us about six months.

We had the systems there but not in the way the submission required. This gave us the opportunity to review how we presented our statistics to make them more sector specific. We have now altered our processes not only with Logistics but we have extended this to other areas as well.

We involved the whole college and that takes time. The exec. team, the QA team, our own staff within Services to Business including sub-contractors and the apprenticeship team – they were all involved.

We didn’t leave it at that. We involved the stakeholders, too – employers, Skills for Logistics, schools, European connection to name but a few.

As a result every one had ownership of our submission.

We found that Part A and Part B are different. Writing the two parts was different. With Part A we concentrated on the whole college. Part B was a lot more specialised.

We were very confident as we were writing because we know we are an excellent training provider and everything we said we could prove. We, however, knew we had to find the right way to tell the assessors about what we do.”

What was the verification visit like?
“Thorough.

It was rigorous. It was probing. The assessors knew what they were looking for.

They were friendly and pleasant, but they were clear about what they wanted.

The assessment process was a challenge yet the experience was very positive. We pulled everything together to make sure we were ready – and we were. They wanted to speak to different people – our executive team, human resources, the CPD unit, sub-contractors and staff – we made sure everyone was available.

We had prepared lots of examples of evidence from across the whole college ready for the visit. We could pull them out easily. That meant we were well prepared for the visit.”

What hints and tips would you like to offer to organisations preparing for assessment?
“Make sure that whatever you write about in your application you are able to evidence.

Sell yourself, and your organisation, but make sure you can evidence what you say. That’s really important. Don’t take anything you do as obvious – tell them about it.

Remember also that it’s your story and nobody else’s. Be clear about that.

Have a team of people make an input to the application. Staff, stakeholders, every one. Get their input. Get them to contribute. Their inputs are so valuable. Keep going back through your application and be willing to alter what you have put to make it flow more easily, Don’t just do this at the end. Brianstorm ideas as people from different areas will look at the submission wearing a different hat from yourself – don’t miss the opportunity to listen, and include what they have to say.

We kept asking ourselves if we were selling what we do strongly enough. We kept asking if we had enough statistics to support what we were saying and, with Part B, if we were meeting the requirements of Skills for Logistics.

We checked amongst ourselves. We checked with other people, too, and asked them to read what we were writing, because it’s very useful to have lots of people look at the application.

In the end the application was a credit to all our staff.”

Find out more about Wakefield College’s work with employers by visiting their website.

Three Questions . . .

Three questions is a series of interviews in which I talk to experts who offer insights into how to address many of the issues provider organisations seeking TQS certification face.

Data strategy, measuring the impact of training solutions on employer organisations and dealing with trends in employer engagement are all issues that colleges and learning providers are grappling with as they progress towards TQS certification.

I asked David Willis, who helps organisations to use the data they collect to improve their business decisions, about how managers working to achieve the TQS can make sure they meet the data challenges posed by the Standard.

What sort of data should colleges and learning providers looking to gain TQS certification collect?

“You need to gather feedback on everything and track what goes on in your organisation. You need to gather information about your courses, your employers, your successes with employers, how you meet their expectations and so on.

This includes finding answers to the following:

How many employers do you support?
How many employees do you train?
What skills do employers ask for – that is individual employers and groups of employers?
Do you supply what they ask you for?
How happy are employers with your performance?
What additional skills do employers want you to help them to develop?

This is all valuable information. It’s the basis of your understanding of your employers. It’s part of your on-going market research.”

How can managers make progress with all this quickly?

“Think about producing a data strategy to help you to collect, and then make good use of, your data.

Your data strategy will set out what you want to achieve using the data you collect. It will also describe how you will do the job of collecting data. Having all this in place will help you to track what you do, to establish cycles of activity and to compare what you’ve done in the past with what you’re doing now.

For example, you know you need to gather employer feedback, so give some thought to that. Think about ways of collecting the feedback you need quickly and easily.

You could gather this data digitally by encouraging employers to log onto your system to leave their answers to your questionnaire. These responses can be analysed quickly. You can then appraise responses at a higher level – the level of the programme, the faculty or on a whole college basis. You can also think about what happened this year and last year.

You could set your system up so that you record what skills employers ask for when they come to you, and then check if they think you deliver what they want as part of your feedback process.

You’ll need a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system to help you to put all of this into practice. Most organisations in business have them now. You’ll need to think about how you intend to use the system and what you want it to do for you. This is part of your data strategy.

All of this is straightforward. It’s not difficult. You just need to think it through.”

How can managers justify the expense of such an approach to working with data to the most senior people in the organisation?

“Working with data in these ways is not just about helping you to get the TQS. It can also give you a competitive advantage in your marketplace.

With this work you’re building your understanding of employers. You’re undertaking highly specific research. You are getting to understand the local economy and local employers. You’re learning about the skills shortages in your area and about the demand for skills.

Your organisation needs that information. You need it for the TQS. You need it for your marketing.

Managers need to explain that working on your data and your data strategy will help you to gain the TQS. It will also help you to improve your overall performance with employers.”

If you would like more information about using your organisation’s data effectively contact David Willis via his website.

Three Questions . . .

Three questions is a series of interviews with experts who offer insights into how to address the issues that slow down the progress of provider organisations looking to gain TQS certification.

Recently I spoke to Karen Kimberley, a specialist in making communications work better in large organisations, about how managers working to achieve the TQS can ensure they get the support they need from their organisation.

Some managers in colleges and provider organisations really struggle to get senior management backing for their work on the TQS. What do you suggest they do to ensure they get the support they need to succeed?

“Struggling to get senior management support is a common problem in organisations.

If you’re going to succeed with the TQS you need to manage your stakeholders carefully.

Telling senior managers, governors, other managers and colleagues, – all your stakeholders, in fact, – about the importance of the Training Quality Standard isn’t enough to ensure it will become important to them and move up their agenda. Senior managers don’t always listen or hear what you say and, as often as not, they’re not fully aware of the scope of the situation you are dealing with.

You need to find creative ways of showing how gaining the TQS will be a benefit to them and to your organisation. It’s really important that they understand these benefits, and it’s your job to help them.

You also need to help them to understand the size of the task you are working on. Maybe you could come up with a visual analogy. For example, create a picture which shows 150 steps leading to TQS certification. Explain to senior managers that each step in your picture equates to an hour of work. You can then show senior people where your organisation is on the stairway and how much effort you still need to put in to succeed.

You need to think hard about how to get your point across. Doing something like this will help you to engage your audience’s imagination and get them on board.”

How can the manager with responsibility for the TQS ensure he or she gets the right amount of support from every one in the organisation, not just senior managers?

“Organise a steering group.

Large organisations do this. They know where they’re going. They plan what they are going to do. They have milestones and timelines.

This approach means they are able to devolve many responsibilities to quite junior people. The tasks they will be asked to do are clear. People are working within a structure and aiming to achieve defined goals.

It’s also important that you take steps to keep your steering group posted about progress with the project. Use the web, and your intranet, to share information.

You could, for example, use Google Documents to share your plans, and your application as you are working on it. It’s better to do this than just send round drafts. All the people who share the Google Document can see the most up-to-date version. They can also add their input to it. This approach will help to keep people informed and enthusiastic.”

What single, important piece of advice would you like to offer to anyone leading a TQS project in a provider organisation or college to help them sustain commitment to the TQS?

“You need to involve people. That’s really important. Get them working with you.

Remember your success here depends on face-to-face communications, not solely on e-mails and documents.

If people are close to something, if they experience it, they understand it better. They need to experience what you are doing with the TQS if they are going to want to support you.

You must help them to be aware of what you are doing, to understand why the TQS matters and how they can get involved to help you. That way you will make progress quickly.”

Karen has provided a free planning guide to stakeholder communications which she is making available to readers of this blog. Contact her via her website if you would like a copy.

http://www.karenkimberley.co.uk