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.

Employer Engagement Basics - the Summary

Over the past few weeks I've been writing about employer engagement basics.

This series of posts offers a good starting point if you want to make sure you set up the right systems and pay attention to the right things. The series will also help you if you want to check that you are doing the right things.

The series started by covering the key elements of:

the employer engagement strategy

Next there was some guidance on:

organisational needs analyses

including a post on why you need an organisational needs analysis.

I wrote about LMI in a post entitled: What's all this about LMI?

I also answered the question: how much LMI do we need?

I wrote about measuring the impact of training and also about continuous improvement.

Use the series as a source of basic guidance and as a means of benchmarking your progress with your work with employers to date.

Continuous improvement

Continuous improvement comes up sooner or later in every development programme.

If you’ve been following the series of posts on employer engagement basics, you will have found quite a few areas where you can improve what you currently do to support employers.

In the context of continuous improvement it’s important to record the detail of your systems and processes for supporting employers. You also need to show how you change your processes for managing your work with employers. When you make these changes you are creating a case study of how you manage the continuous improvement process.

Don’t worry, then, that you have four versions of your ONA and three versions of the approach you use to measuring the impact of your interventions in employer organisations. You’re demonstrating incremental development via each iteration. You’re showing how you are adapting your work to be more employer-responsive. You’re showing you want to serve your market more effectively.

If you’re looking to measure your improvement as well as describing it in narrative terms, think about the performance measures you have identified for your organisation. Remember these are not your targets. They are the measures you are using, your own key performance indicators (KPI). They could relate to employer satisfaction. They could relate to productivity issues and how you are helping employers to improve their ability to do what they do.

Do the trends you have noted show an improvement? Are you able to demonstrate that more employers believe you are helping them to improve their business, for example?

If they do, and if you have the numerical information to prove it, you are on your way to demonstrating continuous improvement.

Measuring Impact

It’s all very well to talk about measuring the impact of your work with employers, but what, exactly, do you need to measure?

The answer is all to do with what you are trying to achieve for the employer, rather than for learners.

How have the training interventions you have delivered, or are delivering, helped the employer’s organisation?

What difference is your training making to the organisation’s success?

You must work out what you are trying to achieve before you begin working with the employer.

After you have completed your interventions you must go back and measure how well you did.

When you think about measurement, what sort of things should you be measuring?

The easiest way to get started is to think about improvements to employee productivity.

• What can employees do now that they couldn’t do before the training?


• What can employees do faster and making fewer mistakes than previously?


• What improvements in employees’ performance can you see in the areas which were covered by the training you delivered?
  

Talk to the employer about these subjects. The chances are you will find that this sort of thinking leads on to discussions about other improvements.

Does the employer think that employees are performing more effectively now they have completed their training?

Is there a sense of improved morale and motivation in the employer’s organisation?

Can every one see what difference your interventions have made?

If they can you have begun to measure impact.

About ONAs

An organisational needs analysis (ONA) is an essential element of your employer engagement strategy.

You can’t do business without one . . . but what goes into it?

I’ve seen ONAs that are long, and I mean long. I suspect you have, too.

I’ve seen ONAs that have ensured that employers never get in touch with a training provider again. Yes, they won’t even speak to the provider on the telephone.

I’ve worked with lots of employers who see ONAs as bureaucratic form-filling activities.

You need to make sure your ONA is different. You need to make sure your ONA adds value to the employer.

Remember that the primary purpose of an ONA is to support the employer, not to give you lots of information to put into your database.

Therefore, you need to think about the answer to a simple question.

What do we need to know about an employer to enable us to tailor a support package which right for the people in his or her organisation?

That’s it. Simple.

In reality, providers get carried away and try to find out a great deal more. They take up lots of an employer’s time. At the end of the process the employer feels that he or she has lost an afternoon or a morning and gained nothing.

To avoid falling into that trap decide that whatever information you are collecting, it must only take you an hour at most to collect it.

Think also about ways in which you can make that meeting or discussion something that the employer will think is valuable. What useful information can you make sure you impart? What does the employer want to know more about? – No, this doesn’t refer to your offer. What is the employer struggling with, right now – and how can you help – without selling your offer?

Of course, you need to ensure you capture the usual information about names, addresses, contact details, web addresses and so on. There are other things, too, that you really need to know about.

These include:

how the organisation heard about you, the provider – because this will help to shape the discussion

the employer’s key challenges – because you don’t know how you can help until you know what is keeping the employer awake at night

how the employer is addressing those key challenges at the moment - because that will give you a hint as to where the gaps in the strategy are at the moment

what the employer aspires to achieve in the next year – because everything you eventually offer must support the employer’s own plans

how the employer currently develops his or her staff – because that will help you to be clear about what has already been done and what sort of development the organisation favours.

There are quite a few more things, but all of the information is gathered as part of a discussion. It doesn’t result from working through a checklist.

You can add value in an ONA discussion by actually giving the employer the chance to talk about these things. You can add value by asking questions that will help the employer to clarify and advance the thinking that has gone into current achievements.

Therefore, you need to spend some time working on your ONA. It can be a great selling aide and a reputation-building activity – if you plan it correctly.

Why do we need an ONA?

An organisational needs analysis (ONA) is an essential element of your employer engagement strategy.

You can’t do business without one.

You use your ONA to help you to find out what an employer’s key issues are.

An ONA is not concerned with training and what training an employer needs. It’s all about working out what is keeping an employer awake at night and where he or she feels the pain, right now.

An ONA deals with an employer’s business issues.

Whether you are dealing with public sector employers or with private sector employers, you need to know about the principal concerns of the organisations you are hoping to work with.

If you look at Part A of the TQS, you will see in A2.2 a requirement to find out about and to make sure you understand employers’ needs. The standard talks about “underlying business needs”.

This knowledge and understanding is important in the context of the Training Quality Standard, but it matters in the context of your business, too.

When you sell training commercially, you will need to link what you are offering to these underlying business needs. If you are going to stand a good chance of selling your product or service, you need to do this.

Therefore, today you need an ONA to help you to do business with employers.

Next time . . . what an ONA covers.

How much LMI do we need?

There’s an easy answer to this question . . .

. . . Less than you think.

You need information that you are going to use to shape your provision.

You don’t need great tomes of data that you will never use.

Why do we gather LMI anyway?
The main reason any business gathers and then uses LMI is to help it to spot business opportunities. That’s why you want to know about the size of markets and about trends in markets.

You use the information you gather to help you to decide where you are likely to be able to build your business.

You use it to help you to be clear about where you should be investing and growing your business.

LMI will help you to be more demand-led if you use your information in the right way.

What LMI do we really need?
You need to know about national developments – employment/unemployment rates - that sort of thing. You need to know what is happening in the industries and sectors that you are targeting.

You need to know if there is anything unusual about the part of the country in which you live. Is your area unusual in some way?

You also need LMI to help you to keep up to date with what is happening in your marketplace locally. This is an aspect of LMI that lots of providers ignore. Local information is best gathered by your own organisation. You can collect it with minimal effort. It's valuable because it helps you to shape what you do.

Every time you think about collecting and using LMI your first question should be: how are we going to use this?

If you don’t know the answer, ask another question. Do we really need to know about this?

What's all this about LMI?

Every one seems to want to know more about LMI and to gather more LMI. Therefore, I'll cover some of the basic LMI issues in the next post.

There is, however, a good question to start with.

What does LMI stand for?

• Is it labour market intelligence?
• Is it labour market information?
• Does it matter?

I tend to think of LMI as being about intelligence.

There is a hierarchy of importance in this field

Data is the raw material of your investigation. The individual evaluation forms that you collect in at the end of a training programme contain data.

Information is created when you analyse that data

Your analyses are interesting, but you create intelligence when you use the information to help you to decide what to do next. You create intelligence when you do more than just analyse data.

You analyse the forms that you collected at the end of that training programme. In doing that you have created management information.

You then decide what actions your analysis suggests. It is that activity that leads to the creation of intelligence.

Thus, information has less value than intelligence. It’s an intermediate output.

Unfortunately there is a lot of labour market information around and not enough labour market intelligence.

Don’t be satisfied with Labour market information. Insist of being presented with labour market intelligence.

Get a grip!

This could be the sub-title to most of the presentations that I make to colleges and learning providers about the TQS.

People who are just starting out on the TQS journey often don’t know where to start with employer engagement.

They don’t know which are the activities they need to do quickly.

Defining how you work with employers early in your TQS development process is essential if you are going to progress rapidly. It will also add value to your employer engagement activities.

One of the employer engagement basics, then, is to think about how you manage the relationship with individual employers.

To help to be clear about how you work with employers consider the stages of the employer's journey with you. Think about:

• The time before employers do business with you – when they are making enquiries and you are dealing with them
• When they are considering working with you – that is when you are creating an offer and a way of working with them
• When they are working with you – when the programme they have “purchased” is progressing
• When the first piece of work comes to an end – when you work out with each employer just how well you have supported him or her (not how well you have supported the learners)
• When you come to build the relationship further – when you think about how you can turn a single piece of business into a long-term relationship.

You need to have systems and processes in place for managing each stage of the employer’s journey.

You also need to make sure those systems and processes are implemented consistently across your organisation. (If you don’t work in a consistent manner you will have problems when you come to think about assessment.)

All of this could sound like a big piece of work.

It is, but it’s a relatively simple and straightforward piece of work, if you do it sooner rather than later.

Your Organisational Needs Analysis

At the heart of your employer engagement strategy is your approach to finding out exactly what makes employer organisations tick.

• You want to know what their issues are.
• You want to know what keeps people in employer organisations awake at night.
• You want to know the problems they are wrestling with.

You want to know this because until you know these things, you cannot possibly know what training to offer employers.

Your ONA is at the heart of your commitment to being demand-led.

Therefore, do you have one?
Do you use it?
Do you aggregate the outputs you receive from individual employers to help you to obtain a better view of your marketplace?

If you are just starting to think about ONAs, produce something very simple and straightforward.

Think of ways in which you can add value to the employer via your ONA.

Remember employers are giving you their valuable time. What will the employer get out of the ONA, on the day, immediately?

Make a list of benefits.

Check that employers think these are benefits, too.

Your ONA is vital to your success with employers. It must be perceived as being valuable by employers, so work on this building block of employer engagement as soon as is practicable.

Even in you already have an ONA, review it and check that it is fit for purpose.

Check also that employers think your ONA is fit for putpose.

The Employer Engagement Strategy

Do you have an employer engagement strategy?

When I visit provider organisations the employer engagement strategy I am presented with is often the business plan.

It’s great to have a plan, but your employer engagement strategy needs both an internal face and an external face.

In simple terms, if your business plan is the internal face of your employer engagement strategy, the external face is your rationale for working with employers.

The external face is your series of statements which set out what you aim to do support employers. It’s also the set of statements you make about how you do this.

It’s that simple.

These statements need to be communicated to your staff and repeated to your employers and your stakeholders.

You will know your employer engagement strategy has been understood when your employers start telling you what you aim to do to support them and they offer you the messages you have promoted to them.

What goes wrong?
Quite a few organisations don’t really know how they help employers, so they can’t create those public statements. They don’t have an external face to their employer engagement strategy.

Check your situation. Ask three of your staff now:

What do we do to help employers? . . . . . . . .

Employer Engagement Basics

The next few posts are about employer engagement.

If you are new to the TQS, use them to help you to get started on your development journey.

If you are approaching assessment, use them to help you to check your progress and your readiness to be certificated.