So what now for the TQS?

Where is the TQS going?

Are you still working towards TQS certification?

Is the TQS still as important in your organisation as it was a year ago?

Ask yourself these questions as we move into 2011.

Do we have to have the TQS?

I’ve written responses to some very good questions over the life of this blog. The question above is probably the best question of all. I hope I can do justice to the question in my answer.

Where are you going?

Whether or not you need the TQS depends on your business model and your business objectives. If you’re looking to rely on government funding for your income, then you definitely need to consider the TQS seriously.

If the funding bodies with which you work expect their suppliers to hold the TQS, then clearly Achieving the TQS will make business sense.

It might also make sense to achieve certification if you want to become a member of your National Skills Academy (NSA). TQS certification could become a condition of NSA membership in the future.

However, you need to think of some other issues, too.

Will it matter to our customers if we gain the TQS?

To address this think about your relationships with your customers.

Will your customers think differently of you if you hold the TQS? Will they do more business with you? How much value do your customers place on the TQS as a brand and as an indicator of training excellence?

Will you take action to make the most of that certification with your customers? Are you going to use your TQS certification as a means of differentiating yourself from other provider organisations? Will you use your certification to promote yourself strongly?

Will you take a hand in promoting the TQS brand? After all, once you hold certification, it will be in your own interests to promote the TQS concept, too.

Will it matter within the learning and skills world, if we gain the TQS?

Will holding TQS certification help you to fulfil the requirements of other assessment frameworks? Will your TQS certification help you with inspection issues?

Don’t just look at the requirements of each framework as you think about your answer. Think also about whether the work you do in the TQS context will make life easier for you when you are preparing for inspection. Will having systems, processes, frameworks and structures in place for managing relationships with your employer customers will help you with your preparations for other assessments?

Doing more with less

Achieving more with limited resources is going to be important for many years to come.

Will the process you go through as you prepare for TQS certification help you to work more efficiently and more productively?

Have you thought about the benefits you will gain by overhauling the ways in which you manage relationships with employer customers? Will those systems and processes help you to work smarter? Will the new systems help you to do more business with your existing customers? Will you give your employer customers a better experience because you have a systematic approach to dealing with them?

For example:

• Do you record the costs you incur in order to gain a new employer customer?
• Do you work out how much it costs you to hold on to an employer customer?

The systems and processes you introduce to help you to achieve the TQS may cut the costs of both activities. To be sure of this you will need to do some measurement of current expenditure.

In the end you might decide you can’t afford not to seek certification, but you won’t know until you do that measurement.

Is the TQS providing a framework for excellence?

Irrespective of TQS certification issues does the TQS provide you with a framework that will help you to serve your employer customers better?

If you believe it does, then you will probably have the answer to the question about whether you have to have the TQS, too.

See also:

How much LMI do we need?

An assessor's view of the TQS

What did you gain as a result of working with us?

How often do we keep in touch with our employers?

An Assessor’s View on the TQS

Most of the readers of this blog are thinking about TQS assessment when they apply the advice they find here. Therefore, the opportunity to receive guidance from a TQS assessor will always be welcome.

During August I spoke to Peter Hillman, a licensed assessor with Investors in Excellence.

We discussed assessment and captured below are some of his personal insights into the assessment process together with lots of useful guidance to every one working with the Training Quality Standard.

What do you think is the main value of TQS assessment to providers?
I think there are several aspects of the assessment which really add value to providers.

The assessment helps a provider to focus on the employer and the benefits that employer gains as a result of working with that provider.

The assessment offers an independent objective review of how the provider works with employers, - plus feedback. The feedback is from the perspective of how employers’ business needs are identified and met, rather than from the educational experience of the learner; this is likely to involve assessing how organisation-wide processes and performance are measured and managed. That’s what makes the TQS different from many of the other assessments with which providers may be familiar.

The assessment also makes providers look at the data they hold about employers. Their learner data is usually a lot more accurate than their employer data! There are understandable reasons for this, and TQS helps to show providers that by applying the same rigorous processes as for learner data, they can do just as much with their employer data.

How is assessing against the TQS different from assessing with reference to other standards?
The TQS assessment is application based.

It’s the application that is assessed and if some of the good practices that the provider has in place are not in the application they will not be included in the assessment. This makes the application critical to the assessment process and it needs to be a comprehensive “story” of how Employer Responsiveness is managed from Strategy through Application to Demonstration of Performance through a range of Results.

If it is not in the application it does not get assessed.

The aim of the verification visit is for the assessment team to resolve any questions they may have about the information in the application – it is not an opportunity for the provider to present the “ (new) evidence they did not include in the application”. Many providers have not yet caught up with this or the implications and how this makes the TQS different to other assessments and inspections!

It is also worth remembering that essentially the only information the assessors have about the applicant is what is in the application (and what may be on their website). Therefore it is important not to make assumptions about assessors' understanding of “how you do things”. Once providers realise the importance of the application it should raise questions with them about who should write it and who the audience is. It needs to be someone who knows the organisation, not just “someone who has the time”. The person who writes the application needs to be able to write well in order to present clearly how the organisation delivers employer responsiveness. The writer’s job is to explain how the provider does things and how they know they are happening and working.

This means that the writer must be able to write concisely and clearly.

The application itself needs to show how the provider is employer responsive. The strategy for working with employers should describe the “business” that you are in and why, together with a range of SMART objectives to support this. This provides the context for the assessment and for the application.

What are the various stages of your work as an assessor?
The assessment team has a lot to do even before seeing the application. Once Registration is complete and an “assessment agreement” finalised it’s usual for the lead assessor to call the provider and introduce himself or herself and to set up the actual dates (within the agreed window) for the verification visit as quickly as possible. It’s important to make sure, as soon as possible, that the key people will be around when the visit takes place.

Prior to the verification visit the assessors will review the application. They will do this independently including identifying Strengths, Areas for Improvement, issues to be discussed during the verification visit and then score the application. They would then share their views and arrive at a consensus on the information including the key issues to be addressed during the verification visit. When they’ve finished this part of the process, the desktop review will go to the certification body.

The preparations for the verification visit come next. The lead assessor produces a visit plan including people they wish to talk to and documents they want to see. The assessors may, for example, want to see some documents such as Employer Responsiveness Strategy, Employer Surveys, completed ONAs and reviews of outcomes. It’s fine, if they’re stored electronically. There’s no need to create copies just for the assessor.

This verification visit plan is shared with the applicant prior to the visit.

When the assessors visit, they will spend their time addressing the issues that emerged when they did the desktop review. Following this they review their findings - Strengths, Areas for Improvement - and arrive at a consensus of the evidence and hence the score - whether or not to change the scores in the desktop review. Remember the assessors will not provide you with any feedback at the end of the verification visit – no matter how many times you ask!

After the visit the lead assessor will produce the feedback report and agree this with the other assessor.

Where validation happens it is managed by the certification body and the assessors are not involved.

Following the decision on the outcome of the assessment process the lead assessor meets with the provider to discuss the feedback report which will have been sent to the provider about a week before the feedback meeting

What is enjoyable about being a TQS assessor?
You get to meet a range of people in different types of organisations – large and small, FE Colleges and Independent Training Providers. – It’s challenging, rewarding and you have many opportunities to see examples of good practice in action

You put yourself in the employer’s shoes at some points in the process and in the applicant’s shoes at other points. You check out the system the provider uses for managing work with employers. You look to see if it’s suited to its purpose.

You also have the opportunity to tell providers what they’re good at. That’s very enjoyable

What is challenging about being a TQS assessor?
The biggest challenge is avoiding giving advice to providers.

You have to remain objective, and you are not there to tell people what they should be doing. They ask. Of course, they ask for advice, but you can’t step over that boundary. You’re there as an assessor and not as an adviser. You have to be very clear about your role and about the boundaries to your role.

Also, TQS is a framework and you have to constantly be aware of what is “appropriate” for the size and complexity of the organisation you are assessing

. . . And a final thought . . .

Whether or not you apply for certification, I believe the TQS provides a world class framework for developing an effective employer responsive business and is an excellent development tool – “it is a route map for the journey to a successful future”.

Peter Hillman has been a TQS assessor for over two years and has conducted over 50 assessments including employer organisations involved in TQS for Employers.

If you have any questions you would like to ask Peter, please post them as a comment. Peter will reply via the comments, too.

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?

Good Questions (5) How often do we keep in touch with our employers?

This is the last of the five good questions that I introduced in our April newsletter.

How often do you keep in touch with your employers is an interesting question.

• Is there a hard-and-fast rule?
• Is there a right answer?
• Is there an answer that satisfies the TQS requirements?

The only answer is the one that is linked to employers’ requirements and expectations.

• How often do your employers want you to be in touch?
• Can your systems cope with employers who have different expectations?
• Can your systems cope with employers who want ad hoc contact?
• Can your systems cope with employers who want contact to be triggered by particular events and not by the calendar?

An interesting additional question is:

• How do you know what employers want and expect?

Asking good questions is an excellent way of helping you to progress. Use these five as you work towards TQS certification.

Good Questions (4) - What did you gain as a result of working with us?

I went out on some visits to employers last week. I was accompanying a Business Development Manager from a learning provider organisation.

Whilst we were at one employer organisation, he asked the question:

“What did gain from working with us?”

The answer he received was:

“We got some free training.”

I felt sorry for that manager, and wouldn’t have liked to have been in his shoes when he reported back to his senior team about his own organisation's readiness to go forward to TQS certification.

Yet, the exchange illustrates an important point.

You need to help the employer to be clear about what he or she is going to gain from working with you before you begin a programme. If you do that, the employer can be looking out for those benefits during the life of the training programme.

I was in a different employer organisation recently where the answer to the same question was:

“As a result of the SAFED training we have reduced our fuel consumption by 2%, so despite the fact that diesel prices are going up again, we are spending about the same on fuel as we were three months ago.”

How would you feel if your employer customers said this?

I know the account manager sitting next to me in that meeting was grinning from ear to ear for the rest of the day.

Remember then, that is you want your employers to see the benefits of working with you, you need to help them to know what they will get out of working with you before the training begins.

Employers won’t make statements like the one from the owner of the transport company above, unless you set them on the right track to begin with.

Good Questions (3)

In our April Newsletter there were five good questions. Here is some more guidance about the third of them.

Did you produce a proposal for the employer that dealt with business benefits?

If you think you did, the question is: are you sure?

A lot of the proposals that I see are not really business-focused. They deal essentially with training and training issues. This causes problems when you come to think about the Training Quality Standard.

If you don’t have proposals which cover the right things, you will struggle to address the requirements of 2.4 in the TQS. If you struggle with 2.4, you will struggle with 4.1. You will almost certainly struggle with aspects of A5, too.

Your proposals to employers are the bedrock of your practice. They are essential elements of your work with employers.

Don’t spend too much time thinking about how nice they look, how prettily they are laid out and if they are all written down. Think carefully about how your interventions will help the employer’s business. That’s what is essential in a good proposal.

This is a simple requirement, but it causes lots of problems.

It also takes time to rectify.

If your proposals don’t deal with business benefits, then you can’t create an audit trail which shows that you have done what you set out to do. You can’t show that your employers are benefiting from working with you.

This is one of the main reasons why you need to chip away at your TQS work over time.

You need to embed systems and processes and implement them for long enough to show that they work.

Therefore, when you think about this question, also ask:

• How long will it take us to ensure we do address business benefits in employer organisations?
• How long after that will we need to wait in order to prove that we are adding value to our employers as well as to our learners?
  

Good Questions (2)

The second good question in our April Newsletter is: Are your staff familiar with the SSC’s footprint?

Unpacking this one is helpful for anyone thinking about starting on a Part B application.

It’s truly amazing how often I see an application where the writer is unaware of what the relevant Sector Skills Council is trying to do to support its sector.

Given that Part B focuses on how the organisation works to support the development of the relevant sector, it’s impossible to write a good Part B application without knowing about what is happening in that sector.

A good starting point with all of this is to find out what the SSC is doing – what its footprint is. Then it’s worth finding out what the key trade organisations are looking to achieve. Next ask: who is lobbying government about what? That will help with the national perspective.

Then there are the regional, sub-regional and local perspectives on the industry. The person writing your application needs to know about these, too.

Once you are confident about where the sector is going, it’s possible to start to write about what you are doing to help the sector.

What do people write about instead?
Well, when they struggle, they write about how they work with their individual employers and about what they do in general terms. It’s sad, because so many providers do know their sectors well and senior staff in successful providers are often very active in their industries. They simply don’t write what will show their achievements off well.

More than once, a provider has admitted to running out of steam by the time they have reached Part B.

• Sometimes, the person writing Part B hasn’t had any training on what the application process requires.
• Sometimes the person writing Part B is doing so without having seen the Applicant Guide.

If you’re going to make a good showing with Part B, make sure you can answer this good question with confidence. That’s your starting point with your Part B work.

Good Questions (1)

Good questions are good for your organisation. They can be challenging, but good questions will help you to focus on the right issues.

In the April edition of the Achieving the TQS Newsletter I set out five good questions that it would be beneficial for you to ask in your organisation as your work towards your TQS certification.

I said in the newseltter that I would look at each question in more detail in this blog. Therefore, the next few posts deal with those questions in turn.

When you look at each question, before you think about the answer, think about the value of asking the question. Then think about the answer.

This first question is one to ask of the employer.

What briefing did you receive about the work we are doing with you?

It’s far better to talk to people who have been briefed than simply to look to check if there is a system in place to ensure that briefings to take place.

• Having a monitoring system is part of your management process.


• Implementing a monitoring system is part of your management process.


• Proving that the monitoring system works as specified is a valuable activity.


• Talking to your employers about this not only allows you to check the efficacy of your system, it helps you to build your relationship with each employer.

People in colleges and provider organisations often say they need more reasons to get in touch with employers in order to build rapport and to understand employers better. Here is one question that can start a conversation and help you to do just that.

You also need to speak to the employer about the briefing that he or she has received, because it’s the employer’s judgement that counts. You may think your communications system works well. You can’t be sure of that, until it is endorsed by your employers.

The meaning of all communication is found in the message received, not in the message sent, so your employers’ perceptions really matter.

Some providers introduce convoluted checking systems to work out in they’re doing what they set out to do. They often forget that asking a simple question can make life a lot simpler and can be just as good - or better - than those checks at providing the information you need.

The answer to this question gives confirmation that an important part of your process for working with employers works. Therefore, remember to ask it.