Making Qualifications Relevant
Employer led demand means there are some significant changes taking place with the key stakeholder partners identifyng, articulating, designing and implementing qualifications to roles. Skills for Health is leading the way in a number of initiatives to help modernise qualifications making them more relevant and flexible across the health sector.
Educational Review
Skills for Health has carried out an extensive review with employers and key stakeholders across, England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland to see how well existing qualifications meet the needs of the health sector. An important part of this work has been how to improve education and training for the future.
The result is the Sector Qualifications Strategy . Supplemental to this but also incorporated within it is major development work on designing educational pathways within Higher Education at both the interface with Further Education and in areas of flexible/negotiated learning.
We will also link with the development around the 14-19 diploma. All of this will lead to a more focused range of qualifications and processes for accreditation and award development that will ensure learning programmes across the UK are more effective in equipping people with the skills employers want and people need to do the job.
Educational Opportunities
Currently the opportunities of moving around within the overall framework of qualifications are limited. Supporting our database of national competences (which provide the opportunity to relate qualifications to competence based roles, are Learning Design Principles . These have helped Awarding Bodies and education/training providers develop demand led educational pathways with flexible multiple entry and exit points which are tailor made to the individual and the job they are expected to carry out.
On the back of this and using the National Occupational Standards (NOS) and the National Workforce Competences (NWC) the Awarding Bodies, education and training providers can identify what qualifications are needed and can build qualifications, educational pathway or programme with the necessary learning, teaching and assessment. This allows career development and progression across the UK without people having to repeat or undergo learning programmes where they can already demonstrate relevant achievement.
How we Help
SfH supports and progresses this through:
