Study Tour of the UK

Paul Zakos travelled to the United Kingdom June 20-27, 1998. The trip was partly funded by a grant from the British Council in Ottawa under the Academic Links Program. While there he consulted with several individuals and organizations who have been part of the design and implementation of the NVQ1 process as it relates to the development of national standards for assessors and verifiers of prior learning. Malcolm Day, a CAPLA member and Senior Nursing Lecturer at the University of Sheffield organized the itinerary and accompanied Paul on all of his consultation interviews.

The goals for this visit were as follows:

• to examine in detail the NVQ process in the UK with a focus on how national standards were developed for assessors and verifiers of learning and to gauge how well this process is currently working in the UK

• to determine how this process might be utilized (with appropriate modifications) to meet similar needs in Canada

• to identify the similarities and differences between Canada and the UK in relation to assessment techniques, quality assurance issues and best practices

• to assess the feasibility of establishing a collaborative structure and specific links with organizations in the UK as part of the development of international benchmarks for assessment

A total of seven individuals and organizations were consulted in a five day span. They included:

1) The Institute of Health Care Development/ Open University (Bristol); Cliff Hancock, Registrar was our host. The goal of the Institute is to provide a one stop shop for the provision of Health Care Qualifications (HCQ) in the NVQ framework. In the initial stages the Institute dealt only with Occupational Certification but it is moving into the area of providing Academic Awards as well. As part of this process the Institute has joined forces with the British Open University which has been in existence for 34 years and has twelve regional centres spread across the UK. The Open University is the UK's largest University and boasts an enrollment of one hundred and fifty to two hundred thousand learners. Flexibility of delivery combined with several part-time study options and student support are some of its important characteristics.

2) Nene College of Higher Education, Northampton; Hosts Marcus Galligan, Course Leader and Steve O'Brien, Divisional Leader, Adult Division. Nene College houses an NVQ Assessment Department which provides NVQs and Assessment Verification (Assessor and Verifier Awards) in Health Care. In addition to the commitment and enthusiasm of Marcus and Steve a highlight of this visit was the opportunity to meet with Jackie Chapman, an Assessor in health care, who has been actively involved in the assessment process for the past four years. Jackie's work involves applying the NVQs in assessing the competence of staff who work in a privately owned nursing home facility. She was positive and enthusiastic about how useful the latest NVQs in health care have been in helping to assess the competence of nursing home staff.

3) City and Guilds, London; Host - Jackie Richards, N/SVQ Product Manager. City and Guilds provides vocational qualifi- cations throughout the UK in the following areas: NVQs, GNVQs (General National Vocational Qualification~16-19 year olds) and SVQs (Scotland) in over four hundred occupations ranging from photography to electronic engineering, travel and tourism, motor vehicle maintenance information technology and computing. City and Guilds awards fifty per cent of all NVQs in the UK. City and Guilds has recently (May 1998) developed a new set of criteria for the development of local NVQ assessment centres which describe in detail the requirements necessary for recognition as a certified NVQ centre. There are currently over one thousand approved centres in the UK.

4) Edexcell London; Host - Peter Goff, Manager, Training and Professional Development. Edexcell was the first awarding body in the UK to offer NVQs for both academic and vocational qualifications. Peter gave an interesting per- spective on the challenges involved with implementing NVQs in both of these areas. He emphasized the importance of identifying clear and realistic standards for the assessment process regardless of whether the qualification was for academic or vocational purposes. He acknowledged that successfully implementing the NVQs and the assessment process in business organizations and educational institutions means that they must undergo significant change in the way they go about achieving their goals.

5) Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA); Hosts - Richard Smith, Principal Officer, Sectors and Teresa Bennett, Visits and Facilities Officer. Richard and Teresa presented an excellent overview of the NVQ system. Richard described the important role played by National Training Organizations (NTOs) in the NVQ system. The main function of NTOs is to represent the needs of business and industry in relation to the identification of industry-based National Occupational Standards and performance criteria against which to measure the standards. NTOs also recommend that the occupational standards be endorsed by the NVQ qualifications frame work and that systems and processes be put into place which enable the standards to be applied. There are three main elements which support the application of standards. They are: assessor training, occupational competence of the assessors and the identification of internal and external verifiers. The UK government will not contract with any organization that has not been certified as an NTO. The QCA brings together the National Council for Vocational Qualification (NCVQ) and the School Curriculum and Assessment Authority (SCAA). The role of the QCA is to integrate business and industry with education and training. One of its main functions is to develop assessment criteria and frameworks for public and high schools nationally which allows them to fit the NVQ framework. According to Richard, ninety per cent of all the jobs in the UK and seventy per cent of all employees are covered by the NVQ process. Eighty per cent of all employers have indicated that they will continue to use the NVQ process to upgrade the skills of their employees.

6) British Training International (BTI), London; Host - Pauline Clark, Company Manager. BTI represents the UK government and its partners in industry, education and training. Its purpose is to make UK vocational standards of qualifications, education and training expertise available internationally. BTI is interested in assisting organizations from other countries to pursue the development of a highly skilled labour force to meet the challenges posed by the global economy and rapidly changing technologies. BTI offers CAPLA an important international link as we pursue our goal of identifying national and international benchmarks for high quality assessment of prior learning for adults in secondary and post-secondary education and in the workplace.

7) Yvonne Nolan, Manchester, Private Consultant. Recently, Yvonne has worked for Edexcell in Europe. She has consulted widely in Greece, Italy, Oman and Finland in relation to the development of an NVQ framework in those countries. It was her view that quality standards for assessment are more important than the NVQs because clear, realistic standards can help drive the rest of the issues and challenges which pave the way for organizational change to occur.

I enjoyed my whirl-wind visit to the UK and was treated "royally" by all those who took time out of their busy schedules to answer my questions. They willingly shared printed materials and their ideas about the important role played by assessment in the development of the UK workforce. It was encouraging to see first-hand their commitment and enthusiasm and to hear their stories of the obstacles and challenges which they have encountered and successfully overcome as part of the reform of education and training in the UK and the move toward a highly skilled internationally competitive workforce. One of the most significant factors in the progress made in the UK in the NVQ and PLAR initiatives is the long-term commitment made by three successive governments to their implementation.

This trip has made it clear that CAPLA's goals of identifying national and international benchmarks for prior learning assessment and collaborating with individuals and organizations who share this vision is in keeping with similar efforts occurring internationally.

It is imperative that we strengthen our links with the UK and other countries (eg. Mexico, Australia, USA) in the following areas:

1) competency based education and training
2) assessment
3) certification
4) adult education and training

CAPLA should continue to actively pursue a national consultation process with PLAR practitioners to identify principles of good practice for quality assessment and strengthen its international links by establishing a collaborative relationship with our counterparts in the UK. The consultation process formally began with the development and implementation of a questionnaire on assessment for a workshop in May at the PLA Conference in Belleville. Once national benchmarks/principles of good practice are identified the next steps in the process involve training and accreditation of assessors and the development of resource materials to support the training initiative.

A joint project between CAPLA and one or more UK organizations sharing similar aims also appears to be worth pursuing in order to ensure that national benchmarks are consistent with international initiatives. I hope to be able to offer more details on these exciting and worthwhile initiatives in the fall edition of The Hub. So stay tuned! If you have any thoughts or ideas on how we might best proceed we would be happy to hear from you.

1 National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) are qualifications which reflect the skills, knowledge and understanding an individual possesses in relation to a specific area of work.