To provide local authorities with a starting point, please see the hints and tips below, which have been broken down into the following categories:
First Thing’s First
The Approach to Writing the Application
The Content of the Application
Preparing for the Verification Visit
First Thing’s First
- Make sure that you are applying for the right version of the Standard. To help you with this decision, you may wish to refer to the TQS Vs TQSE Decision Flowchart, which can be found on the Training Quality Standard for Employers eligibility page here.
- Dependant upon which version of the Standard you are applying for, make sure you can satisfy the eligibility criteria of the Training Quality Standard for Employers here, or the Training Quality Standard here.
- Ask yourself if you have systems and processes in place. Both versions of the Standard look at the systems and processes that you have in place to deliver training and development solutions. Your processes should be consistent and documented.
- If applying for the Training Quality Standard for Employers, your Corporate Customer should approve of your Application.
- Be clear about the commitment up front – writing the Application is quite time consuming, so be sure that you have enough time to invest in the process.
- Be clear about the scope of your assessment: are you one of numerous training functions, or are you the only training function within the local authority. The badge will be awarded to a named training function that can be easily identified within the organisation. For more information on scoping an assessment for the Training Quality Standard for Employers please see here, or for more information on scoping an assessment for the Training Quality Standard please see here.
- Make sure you know who your customers are. For the Training Quality Standard these will be employer customers from external organisations, and for the Training Quality Standard for Employers this will be your corporate customer and internal customers. Being clear about these issues from the offset will help to ensure that your Application has the correct focus. For guidance on who your corporate customer and internal customers are, please refer to the Training Quality Standard for Employers FAQs here.
The Approach to Writing the Application
- Whoever you appoint as the lead in writing your Application should attend the Applicant Training Course and read the Applicant Guide to ensure that they have a firm understanding of the assessment framework and process. N.B Make sure that you have the correct version of the Applicant Guide – there is one version for the Training Quality Standard and a separate version for the Training Quality Standard for Employers.
- It may be useful to use a team approach to pull the information together. You could even ask individuals who are responsible for specific processes e.g. managing enquiries to write a draft for A.2.1 Manage Enquiries.
- Circulate drafts of the Application to other members of the team, this will ensure that nothing gets left out.
- Though sections of the Application can be delegated, or drafts circulated to staff for input, it is important to have a lead author who can ‘bring everything together’, ensuring the style and messages are consistent and that it makes sense as a narrative whole.
- Be sure to stick to the word limit which is:
- 26,000 words for the Training Quality Standard for Employers
- 20,000 words for a Part A and 10,000 words for a Part B for the Training Quality Standard
- Ask someone to critically read the completed Application. Recruiting critical friends will provide you with an objective view of your Application, which will help you to ensure the Application has the correct focus and is easy to read. It can be useful to recruit critical friends from within the organisation and outside the organisation.
The Content of the Application
- Write the Strategy / Plan (A.0) first: you will find that you will refer back to your plan throughout the Application, so it’s useful to have this complete first.
- Your Approaches (Indicators within A.1, A.2, A.3, A.4, A.6 B.1 and B.2) should support your Strategy / Plan: the plan should provide a rationale for the processes you deploy.
- Be sure to describe ‘who’, ‘how’, ‘why’, ‘where’, ‘when’ and ‘to who’ you do something, as well as describing ‘what’ you do. You should also explain ‘how you know it works’.
- When writing the Results Indicators (those within A.5 and B.3) remember to consider that they are concerned with:
- Scope: how well does what you’ve collected address what you wanted to achieve in your Strategy/Plan?
- Trends: a minimum of two years (at least three data points) can be considered a trend
- Targets: are you setting SMART targets; are you meeting these?
- Comparisons: Who are you comparing yourself with – how do you rate?
- The Results Indicators (those within A.5 and B.3) relate to your performance, therefore an assessor will expect to see figures, graphs, tables and charts. You should bear this in mind when completing the Results section of your Application.
- Write about what you do, don’t assume that it’s just good practice.
- Remember to include everything in the Application. Both versions of the Standard are Application based assessments, so you must refer to all evidence within the Application, as new evidence can’t be taken into account on the Verification Visit.
- Remember to make linkages throughout the Application. The Indicators of the Assessment Framework don’t sit in isolation; there are many linkages to be made.
- Related to the above point, you don’t need to keep repeating yourself: if you need to refer to something you have already written in the Application, you can cross-refer to it.
Preparing for the Verification Visit
- It’s a good idea to brief all staff on your Application for the Standard. Informing them about what will happen will prepare them for the visit.
- Ensure that any evidence referenced in your application can be easily accessed on the visit.
- Ensure that key members of staff are available for the Verification Visit. Prior to the visit, the Assessors will provide you with an agenda informing you of the key people they want to see on the day.
- If applying for the Training Quality Standard for Employers and you haven’t already done so, you may want to brief your corporate customer and internal customers to prepare them for the Customer Feedback activity.
- Remember that no new evidence can be considered at the Verification Visit.