NVQ Web

 Communication 

The UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UK Commission) commenced a consultation, in the autumn of 2008, on whether NOS are contributing to the key aims for which they were intended and are fit for purpose.  This consultation was essentially a technical one, based on a number of key questions associated with the current and future use and development of NOS. 

 

The prime purpose of the evaluation and subsequent consultation was to get agreement among the key stakeholders who are the custodians of standards[1] on the use of National Occupational Standards.  In particular the consultation focused on the purpose of NOS other than for qualifications and their relationship with the credit and qualifications frameworks of each of the four home nations. 

 

We would like to thank the 70 organisations that responded for their contribution to the consultation.  The purpose of this document is to provide feedback on the outcomes and to identify what happens next.

  National Occupational Standards 

National Occupational Standards (NOS) are defined as ‘the measurable performance outcomes an individual is expected to reach in a given occupation’. Developed by bodies representing employers across the UK, they define the knowledge, understanding and skills required to perform competently in the workplace.

  The consultation outcomes 

The consultation revealed agreement among stakeholders that:

 

Ø  NOS should continue to be a core tool for employers to develop and support economic skills, to enable them to base their organisation’s development on what is required to do a job and to source the best employees.  NOS, therefore, must be continuously revised to ensure that they capture emerging business practices and reflect changing global economic conditions and new legislation.

 

Ø  Failure to update NOS regularly could lead to growing gaps in skills and performance and result in qualifications that rapidly become outmoded.

 

Ø  Employers must be engaged in NOS definition and revision.  However, to achieve engagement, there has to be intrinsic value for employers in terms of recognisable, relevant and replicable products and services arising from NOS, which make a difference to business productivity, employability and effectiveness.

 

Ø  To encourage employer engagement in NOS development and product use, future NOS must be defined in the language of competency, rather than the language of education and training. 

 

Ø  Each NOS should define statements of competency, broken down into elements of competency with associated underpinning knowledge and understanding.

 

Ø  NOS-based products and services should be presented in a consistent format that is easy to understand and is readily accessible.  They need to be placed within an accessible framework which demonstrates NOS-based products and services both within a sector and across similar occupations in different sectors. 

 

Ø  UK NOS are highly respected in Europe and overseas.  Many countries (eg Australia, US, France, Germany) take the same approach as the UK – they are underpinned by occupational competence as defined by employers.  However, a key difference in many nations is they have moved to a high level of centralisation, leading to consistency across sectors in how they are developed and presented (eg New Zealand, South Africa). 

 

Ø  There is a real desire to see greater consistency of approach to quality assurance across NOS.  This will enable the overall UK ‘NOS product’ to be one that delivers a highly competent, productive, competitive and employable workforce within the global economy.  Although SSCs and other standards setting bodies have an important role in developing and quality assuring NOS against nationally agreed criteria, (employer contribution to their development and the relevance of products), there is a need for wider engagement in defining the strategic policy and high level outputs required by the NOS programme in the context of the overall UK skills agenda.

 

Ø  In an economic climate where it may not be possible to fund all potential NOS through the public purse, employers may need to make a greater financial or in-kind contribution to ensure that the NOS priorities are addressed.

 

Ø  As NOS represent a ‘gold standard’ for skills, differentiators of performance (eg ‘good’ or excellent’) are not appropriate as the NOS are intended to be a statement of best practice against which performance may be measured or competence judged.  By their very nature NOS must be defining at least ‘good’ performance. 

 

Ø  Providing that employers in a given sector agree, NOS and professional body standards should be aligned to remove the distinction between ‘craft’ and ‘professional’ skills and to encourage progression to higher level skills.

 

Ø  NOS are, and must remain, ‘framework neutral’.  NOS describe competent behaviour in terms of skills and the application of required knowledge and understanding, which underpins any qualifications development.   Using ‘competent behaviour’ as the basis of NOS, their application should be readily transferable to different qualification frameworks, including in Europe.

 

Ø  An evaluation is needed as to why the current NOS Directory is not fit for purpose.  It is proposed that a technology-enabled Directory, based on units of competency (rather than suites of NOS) is developed, subject to discussions with employers about the relevance and benefits of a new Directory before investment is made.  

 

Ø  Rather than promoting ‘NOS’, central promotion and marketing of NOS must focus on NOS-derived products and services that enable UK businesses to meet the goal of being a world-class leader in employment and skills.

 

Ø  As centrally promoted NOS-derived products and services become recognised as critical to ensuring the development of business practice that reflects changing global economic conditions, it follows that both public and private occupational training will be based on the same set of standards.

 

Ø  In occupations where there is a need for a level of literacy and/or numeric competence, NOS should reflect the level that is required.

 

A proposal for a detailed investigation into the wider usage of NOS was rejected on the basis that it would probably reveal little more than was already known from Sector Skills Council’s own Labour Market Intelligence.  However, good case studies are needed to demonstrate the wider use of NOS within and across industrial sectors. 

There was also no great appetite for prioritisation of NOS development based on the individual skills needs of each of the four nations, since this approach could lead to the duplication of standards, waste public money and result in the development of qualifications where there is limited demand.  If there were to be UK priorities for NOS development, employers will want to have a say in which NOS are given priority and the knock-on effect for NOS in low-priority sectors.  It will need to be decided whether any prioritisation on a UK-wide basis is related to the government’s own future sector growth projections or in terms of type of occupation that will be needed in the future for the UK to be competitive.

  What happens next? 

Following the largely technical consultation with key stakeholders, there will be a short consultation with primarily HR Directors to test the following proposition:

 

Ø  NOS are still relevant, and to encourage international as well as national mobility, should be aligned with emerging international competency standards;

 

Ø  Employers should lead the development of NOS within their sector, including the regular updating of NOS;

 

Ø  There need to be better mechanisms for engaging with and consulting with employers on NOS as they are developed or updated and on the relevance of the products and services derived from NOS post-approval;

 

Ø  NOS-derived products and services (but not necessarily NOS) need to be centrally promoted to employers and widely available;

 

Ø  NOS must be quality assured by SSCs, but the definition of quality criteria and the monitoring of quality assurance processes should be undertaken by the UK Commission  for Employment and Skills;

 

Ø  NOS need a consistent and simple format, using the language of competency, not that of education and training.

 

Testing of the above will provide invaluable advice for wider consultation based on the principles of a new proposition for NOS with employers.  This will commence with identifying just how much employers use competencies, their knowledge of NOS and where relevant, their use of NOS.   Facilitated through a simple questionnaire (need to add link for questionnaire), this will form the basis of more detailed discussions organised through employer focus groups, which will include questions around:  

 Ø  To make business more competitive, what are the key uses of NOS? 

Ø  Is there value in NOS being aligned to international standards?

 Ø  What is the best way to communicate the value and purposes of NOS to employers and to engage them in NOS development, review and evaluation? Ø  Would employers find it helpful if NOS have a consistent format and approach to their development? Ø  Can the impact of promotion and marketing of NOS-based products and services be measured in terms of business performance or improvement? 

The wider consultation will be completed by Easter 2009. 

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[1] Including occupational and sector bodies such as Sector Skills Councils (SSCs) and Standards Setting Bodies (SSBs), regulatory authorities, awarding bodies, professional bodies, inspectorates and education and training providers.  These stakeholders varied in their levels of awareness and understanding of the technical language.