Course Description

The Practitioner Programme is a 4-day professional development course for anyone in, or working with, organisations that sell training products and services to employers. Developed by the CFE (the Standard’s Managing Body), the course explains all aspects of the Standard by building on technical knowledge, Assessor experience and the lessons learned from over 250 assessments. Looking closely at quality, and the approaches that characterise any good business, the course uses this as a foundation to develop the understanding and skills needed to identify, assess and evaluate employer responsiveness.

Successful completion of the course is rewarded with a Practitioners' Certificate. Demonstrating the knowledge its holders have learned to apply, the Certificate highlights the valuable contribution these individuals can make to organisations that deliver training to employers. To celebrate this achievement all successful candidates will also have their names published on the Training Quality Standard website, and in our newsletter.

Course Objectives

The aim of the course is to equip individuals responsible for developing, managing or improving an organisation’s responsiveness to its employer customers, with the knowledge and skills to effectively fulfil these roles. At the end of the course, candidates will be capable of applying the knowledge they’ve been given and will:

• Know the fundamental concepts which underpin the Standard and assessment
• Understand what quality means within the context of the Training Quality Standard
• Recognise the role evidence plays and what it looks like
• Demonstrate they can put an organisation’s approaches into context using the assessment framework
• Be capable of identifying where an organisation has apparent strengths and areas-for-improvement against the assessment framework.

Course Contents

The main subject areas covered by the course are listed below:

• Quality in context
• Key concepts of the Standard
• The Assessment Framework
• Linkages
• Understanding evidence
• Scoring methodology
• Scope
• The assessment process (including recent changes)
• Reviewing an organisation against the Assessment Framework

Course Structure

The course is delivered over 4-days (each one starting at 9.15am and ending at 5pm) which are split into two 2-day sessions. In the 4 weeks between session one and two, every candidate is expected to review a case study and provide their thoughts about an organisation considering assessment under the Standard. Coaching and support will available from the course tutors to help complete this and the output produced by each candidate will count towards their overall assessment.

Finally, the fourth day of the course is dedicated to assessment and each candidate will be asked to carry out a presentation (in relation to the case study) and a written exam.