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?

What, no team! – big mistake number three

You do have an application writing team, don’t you?

If you haven’t, you’re making one of the five big mistakes that people writing their Training Quality Standard (TQS) application make.

This is because producing a sound TQS application is a big job. In fact, it’s a job for a team.

You need at least two people in that team, but if you have the capacity in your organisation, you will make a better job of the application by bringing more people into the application writing activity.

Four is a good number to aim for, because there are four principal roles to be filled when you are producing your application. These are:

the principal writer – the person who writes the text of the application;
the principal reviewer – the person who reads what has been written and who tries to read it as an assessor might. He or she looks for inconsistencies and contradictions, omissions and inaccuracies and then gives feedback on the application to the principal writer;
the principal evidence gatherer – the person with a real in-depth knowledge of the organisation who can find the right examples of practice to fit into the different parts of the application;
the project manager – the senior person who makes sure that the team has the time and space to do the job well and who fights the battles with the most senior managers to ensure that application writing has priority in the team’s timetable. This is also the person who, in the end, decides when the application is ready to be submitted.

Team responsibilities will be divided up in ways which make sense to you because you know where the talents of the people in your organisation lie.

However, you must ensure that the principal writer and the principal reviewer are different people.

Remember that getting a team on the job of application writing will make the task easier.

Getting a team on the job will also make the application that is sent off to the assessment body better – so it’s worth doing.