TQS Assessments - Summer Feedback

There are lots of disappointed people out there.

Quite a few organisations are finding that they are applying for certification and coming out of the assessment and verification process with nothing.

I've heard of four organisations in the last week that have had a verification visit recently and been shocked when they haven't gained certification - even conditional certification.

The New TQS World

Some of the organisations coming forward for assessment have said openly that they're "only" looking for conditional certification. That is they have accepted that the standard is really too hard for them, or that they don't think they can meet the requirements of A5.

Some organisations have been hoping to get onto the certificated list but haven't realised how difficult a task gaining the TQS is.

There have been some surprises in colleges and in training provider organisations mainly because the task of gaining the TQS hasn't really been considered fully.

I know that when I'm asked to get involved with an organisation looking for TQS certification, my first question is always:

Are you sure you really want the TQS?

My next questions all begin with:

Are you prepared to .....?

If you know some of the disappointed organisations you'll be hearing their versions of the story.

From my position, working with organisations in the South East, in the West Midlands, in the East of England and in the North West, I think the summer feedback should help to focus people's minds on whether they want the TQS and what they need to do to gain it.

Today's message is a firm one.

The TQS is attainable, but it will be hard work.

Are you prepared to do that hard work?

What's your view of the changing TQS scene?

TQS Rule Change

Are you keeping up with the TQS rule changes?

The employer validation element was removed from July 1st.

Conditional certification remains but there is some new guidance about what conditional certification means.

There is also some additional guidance about A5.2.

Training Quality Standard: A 5.2: Technical Note is worth downloading and reading carefully.

What is the impact of these TQS changes?

Well, my customers who worked hard to get their applications in before June 30th are all trying to work out if they made a wise choice.

In all cases we've been working through the new regulations and seeking clarification about specifics.

The answer to the question about the timing of the submission has to be that most people are not really sure whether it's better to be classifed as a June 30th submission or a July 1st submission.

We'll all have to wait a while to find out if people have made the right choice when they sent off their completed applications on June 30th.

Is there a future for the TQS?

I’m asking this question because lots of other people are asking it. I’ve had telephone discussions around this theme with four providers this week, and this exact question, typed into the search engines, has brought this blog several new readers.

Welcome!

I don’t know if there is a future for the TQS, but I do know that the people who are asking the question are more likely to have the answer than the people in the funding agencies.

When people ask me if the TQS will survive, and if it will flourish, I now have my answer ready.

“It will if you value it.”

Do providers value the TQS?

Think for a moment about your own TQS journey. Did you decide to go for the TQS because of the value that you think it will add to your organisation? Did you decide to go for the TQS because someone was pushing you in that direction?

Your answers will shape your view of the TQS.

If you’ve decided that having a systematic approach to working with employers will help your business, then you know that the TQS will help.

You can use the standard and the framework to help you to devise systems and processes to support your work with employers. You can reorganise the way you work with employers. You can follow the principles of the TQS – all at very little cost.

If you’re just starting out on your TQS journey, I’d advise you to buy the Training Quality Standard Applicant Guide, if you can’t get one for free. It will set you back £30, but that will be the extent of your outlay.

You can then use the TQS as a development tool.

I remember getting on for twenty years ago now I spent a lot of time delivering workshops all around the country for MCI (Management Charter Initiative) helping people to see that the newly-published management standards could be used for more than gaining qualifications. They helped business, too, in organisational development, in recruitment, in performance management and so on.

I think the same applies to the TQS. You can gain a lot of benefit from using the standard without thinking of certification.

Does anyone say you must gain certification?

This is the thorny question. Do you need TQS certification in order to gain access to government contracts? Is the ground shifting beneath the sector?

In all honesty the answer matters less than you might think.

If you decide to work with the TQS and apply its principles, then gaining certification is a short additional step to take. You can take that step when someone says you need your certification to take part in the next round of contracting. You will have travelled a long way down the road towards certification using the TQS as a development tool. Gaining the plaque won’t be too big an additional job.

Is there really a future for the TQS?

There are some questions to think about.

• What else is there to put in its place?
• What are the feelings about the TQS in your part of the country? Does it have lots of advocates?
• Has the TQS passed that very important test? Does it actually add value?

It’s your decision.

See also:

Is the TQS still top of the agenda?

Do we have to have the TQS?

TQS Validation: What will you tell your employers?

Update on June 10th
We posted this article on June 8th and new information about validation was released on June 9th. You can read about it here.

Two changes to TQS assessment rules

Be that as it may, how are you preparing your staff and your employers for the fact that you're seeking TQS certification?

Original article

Quite a few of our clients are in the final stages of countdown to submitting their TQS application.

They are looking to have the option of achieving conditional certification and so they are finalising applications now.

Most of our clients are also starting to think about verification and validation. They are wondering how best to prepare their employers for the possibility of the validation telephone call. They want guidance on how to handle this activity well.

So, how should providers deal with the validation issue?

Here’s my advice.

Talk to your own staff first

Make sure every one in your own organisation understands what TQS validation is all about. You don’t want any incorrect messages out there, so make sure every one is clear what happens.

A useful starting point would be to make sure every one understands the concept of net promotion.

I’ve written about the concept of net promotion. Click on the term net promotion to view the post.

Decide what to communicate to employers

This needs to be an organisation-wide decision. It also needs to be implemented in exactly the same way in all parts of the organisation. It’s amazing how messages can get confused. There is scope for ambiguity and misunderstanding in all major communications activities, so make sure you minimise that scope by briefing your own staff on validation issues.

Give your own staff a document which summaries your approach to communicating the information about validation to employers.

Next think about your communications process.

• Are you going to send every employer a letter?
• Are you going to visit every employer?
• Are you going to speak to every employer on the telephone?
• Are you going to do a mix of the above?
• How often are you going to communicate your intentions?

What’s right is what works for you.

You can find the validation notification template letter on the TQS website. Click validation notification template letter to visit the relevant page.

What are providers doing about the validation issue?

We’re working with three organisations which are on the brink of submitting their applications at the moment. Each one has adopted a slightly different approach to preparing for validation.

• A small training company we are working with is visiting all of its employers to explain the validation process. The account managers are showing employers the validation letter on line and explaining the validation process.

• A large college we are working with has a timetable for telephoning all its employers about the TQS once the application has been submitted. In the ‘phone call managers will be alerting employers to the fact that they will be receiving a letter about the TQS in the post and reminding them to look out for it. In the case of this college the senior team has decided that, immediately after the verification visit, the top fifty employers will be telephoned again to remind them of the validation activity.

• Another provider we are working with is handing out a postcard about TQS assessment, verification and validation to its employers during a visit. On one side of the postcard is the TQS information. On the other side is a calendar of forthcoming networking events for employers.

What should you do about validation?

The short answer is that it’s up to you to decide what fits your own client base and your own methods of communicating with your employers best.

It does seem, however, that most providers are doing something, so perhaps you should, too.

Attract More Business - Newsletter

Have you signed up for our Attract More Business newsletter yet?

The May edition will be out next week.

Each month I take an important aspect of employer engagement and offer guidance on how to deal with that issue.

The feature article in April was entitled:

Sign up for our list and stay the course!

It was about getting employers to sign up for your e-newsletter and other communications. It was also about making sure you keep people on your list and opening your e-mails.

When you sign up for the newsletter you'll be able to download our special report:

Bridging the Funding Gap.

The title says it all. It's a guide to help you to earn more income from non-governmental sources.

The main sections in the report are headed:

1. Be clear about how much revenue you want to generate from employers
2. Be clear about who you serve
3. Be clear about what you are selling
4. Face up to the big challenge
5. Create a customer pipeline
6. Manage relationships with employers
7. Build your reputation
8. Promote your organisation effectively
9. Get some feedback
10. Measure and improve

The report is filled with useful advice that you can apply today, so you might want to take a look. All of the advice will also help providers looking to achieve the TQS.

Remember, you'll receive the Attract More Business newsletter, too.

This month I'll be writing about how to get employers to hand over real money.

So, I look forward to sharing this information with you.

The sign-up box for our Attract More Business newsletter is on the right hand side of the screen.

Your TQS application - three reasons why you should write it in-house

Over the last two years or so I’ve been asked many times to write an organisation’s TQS application. On every occasion I’ve turned down the request. I always turn down these requests because the best people to write your TQS application are already working for you.

Of course, you can ask for guidance on how to shape and frame your work, how to make sure your application makes sense to an outsider, how to check that you’ve covered the requirements and so on – and I’ve done all of these tasks several times – but writing your TQS application is a job for you, for three reasons.

It’s your TQS journey

You have made a development journey towards readiness to be certificated. You know the details of that journey. You know about your successes and the areas where you have had problems. You know what you’re really proud of.

Most of all you know how all the different pieces in your jigsaw came together.

This is the story you need to tell, and no one can tell this story better than you.

You know where the evidence is

In your TQS application you make statements about how you address the different aspects of the standard. You then use evidence of how you work in practice to help you to prove your points.

An external writer – even a great writer – won’t have this sort of information to hand. Even in you give him or her lots of material to work with, it will still be difficult for an outsider to decide which items fit the requirements of the different parts of the standard best. It takes someone who knows the standard and knows your work to do that.

You will have to work with the assessors on the verification visit

When the assessors come on site to verify, amplify and clarify what is in the application you’ll have problems, if you don’t own your application.

If you don’t know why something has been written in a particular part of the application, or why a particular example has been offered, you’re going to struggle to have a meaningful discussion with your lead assessor about it. If you don’t know how the application was constructed and the rationale behind your choice of material, you will find the verification visit difficult.

It might look like you’re removing a problem from your over-long list of things to do in your very busy day by outsourcing the writing of your TQS application, but in the long run you’ll be making more work for yourself.

Do yourself a favour

Write the application in-house, but remember to leave plenty of time to write, edit, review and rewrite. In the end the secret of good writing is all in the editing and rewriting.

So, to make sure your TQS application is really well written, don’t outsource the writing, but do make sure you write several versions of the document along the way.

If you’d like to link to this post, please do.

If you’d like to use it in your own TQS newsletter, then that’s fine, provided you acknowledge the writer and the source.

See also: TQS Application writing - the five big mistakes

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?