Roundtable discussion on training and qualifications, Director Magazine, April 2009

I chose this article because I know that many of our clients and contacts have interests in qualifications and because it provides new thoughts on the perennial issue of their value to managers. It also updated me on government involvement in learning, skill development and qualifications; for instance I had never previously heard of the ‘Qualification and Curriculum Authority’ whose ‘Director of Qualification and Skills’ was represented on the panel.

The article is made up of the separately expressed views of this panel which was supposed to represent ‘directors, educators and employee representatives’. Though the views expressed come over as generally informed and sensible, it would have been nice to have seen a rather more high calibre group; it is not the first time that a good feature in the Director Magazine has been adversely impacted by the low quality of the names. Apart from the Head of Skills and Economic Affairs of Microsoft, there is no other household name and it is surprising that the Director could find no educators other than the Principal of Norwich City College and some hardly known private sector suppliers.

Nevertheless, there is knowledge to be gained. Readers may already know this but apparently there is now an ‘Employer Recognition Programme’ (ERP) and a ‘Qualifications and Credit Framework’ (QCF), both sponsored by the above mentioned ‘Qualification and Curriculum Authority’ (QCA). Apparently employers can bundle up in-house training into qualifications to have national recognition and McDonalds and Flybe are among the companies who have done this, though it was interesting that no other names could be quoted. Also quoted was the ‘Training Quality Standard’ (TQS, obviously all designed to be TLAs!) which is awarded by the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) and needs to prove business gain before it can be granted.

One of the panellists mentioned that the ERP is reminiscent of attempts to build management qualifications around the NVQ framework some years ago; another questioned whether a future employer would be attracted by a qualification earned through a specialist company like McDonalds. Yet another point - which was going through my mind as I read the article - was that, for high calibre managers, it is difficult to turn them on unless the qualification is an MBA, and they haven’t the time for that. Clearly some of the panellists were sceptical about the government initiatives, particularly in a management context and during a recession when coping with or keeping a job become the main priorities.

Though the representative of the QCA was selling very hard the benefits of a flexible and integrated qualifications strategy, the answers to the final question - would you employ someone with a McDonalds qualification? - were interesting. The article finished with these three responses from employers:

- ‘I’m interested in ability not qualification’.
- ‘You look at attitude to learning and development’.
- ‘You can develop skills but you can’t train values’.

Maybe it’s because my focus is tailored management training but I was left wondering about the cost effectiveness of the taxpayers’ money that is being spent on maintaining all these TLAs.


To access this article go to http://www.director.co.uk/MAGAZINE/2009/4%20April/round_table_62_9.html