SkillsActive recognises the success of the NVQ in playwork

Jessica Benson, SkillsActive - 05/03/2008

Danny Pitman of Barnet who received the award completed his CACHE Level 3 NVQ (National Vocational Qualification) in Playwork in spring 2007 at Barnet Playwork Assessment Centre. He started his career as a teenager helping out at a children’s summer club run by his mother. Danny undertook training to become better qualified and when his mother retired, he took on the manager role at ‘Busy Bees’ play centre in Barnet which offers after-school play and holiday schemes. Danny said:

“I got a taste for being a playworker at a very young age and put in a lot of hard work training,  getting qualifications and setting up the play centre. I feel I’ve achieved a great deal in a relatively short space of time. I really enjoy running the play centre and making a difference to young children’s lives and the NVQ has helped me to train to a high standard which enables me to deliver a high quality of playwork to the children at the centre.”

Danny received his award at the Out2Play conference, hosted by SkillsActive at Lord’s Cricket Ground and attended by over 150 delegates taking part in workshops and discussions around key topics in playwork.

SkillsActive is celebrating the 100,000th NVQ across the active leisure and learning sector since the qualifications began around 15 years ago. Stephen Studd, SkillsActive’s chief executive said:

“The NVQ is a modern qualification which reflects the changing needs of employers and the diverse labour market. This presentation marks a fantastic milestone in recognition of the success of the qualification in our sector. It sets benchmarks and provides a general standard of competence to which people doing a job should be trained. Practical vocations often don’t seem to require any formal qualifications when in fact they require a complex balance of skills, training and experience which enables someone to do a job competently and handle a range of different issues and situations both within that role and other roles throughout a person’s career.”

Penny Sparrow, Barnet Playwork Assessment Centre’s NVQ assessor, verifier and centre coordinator said: “Danny knows that good quality play provision is about giving children the opportunity to run around, explore and take risks and it is also about being trained to a recognised standard of competency. He is a fantastic playworker who is interested in everything and is a believer in the power of possibility. He has shown true dedication and passion in his work.”

Richard Dorrance, chief executive of CACHE, the awarding body that delivers the Playwork NVQ, commented: “NVQs have raised the value of the playwork brand and have provided first hand evidence of the strong professionalism of playworkers.”