Our development team has worked with employers to ensure that they are all specifically designed to meet their needs:
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We have a register of expert consultants to support our employers and partners in their need for additional specialist resources. As we work with a wide range of people across all of our sectors we are well placed to bring together consultants, with specific expertise, to our market.
Find out more about Active Consultancy.
If you are delivering your own training course, workshop or seminar you can apply to have it endorsed by us - offering assurance on the quality of what is being delivered.
Find out more about Active Endorsement.
activepassport is an online resource that provides a verified record of an individual's training, qualifications and personal and professional achievements. It gives access to accurate data to support recruitment, training and development easily and proactively.
Find out more about activepassport
Active Jobs is our online jobs board for advertising vacancies.
It offers you the opportunity to advertise current job vacancies online on our website, which is accessed by over five thousand people a week.
Find out more about advertising your jobs or view the currently available jobs.
At present, it is hard to understand all the different types of qualification that learners hold - what level they are, how long they take to complete, what content they cover, and how they compare to other qualifications. The new framework will help present qualifications in a way that is easy to understand and measure.
Find out more about the Qualifications & Credit Framework
The Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework is the equivalent to the Qualifications and Credit Framework. It supports everyone in Scotland, including learning providers and employers, by helping people understand the full range of Scottish qualifications. This includes how qualifications relate to each other and to other forms of learning, and how different types of qualification can contribute to improving the skills of the workforce.
To find out more visit the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework website.
In driving growth for the economy, employers need employees with the right skills, in the right place, at the right time. In order to achieve this, work-related qualifications have been reformed to better meet the needs of employers, employees and people entering work.
Qualifications are now based on what employers need and what learners can easily access, whilst including the best parts of existing vocational qualifications. Fundamentally, they bring choice, clarity and confidence to vocational qualifications.
There is now a new process for developing and recognising vocational qualifications that directly involves employers to ensure that the skills needed to improve productivity, generate employment and drive our economy are developed. Employers can now:
Find out more about vocational and other qualifications in our sector or contact us for more information on This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .
Scottish/national vocational qualifications (S/NVQs) are qualifications based on national occupational standards (NOS), statements of performance that describe what competent people in a particular occupation are expected to be able to do.
Vocational qualifications offer flexible studying, while there are no age limits or special entry requirements. Assessment is normally through on-the-job observation and questioning by assessors.
Employers in our sector are often concerned with workplace competence, which is why emphasis is placed on S/NVQs as they are based on national occupational standards which reflect the skills and knowledge required to do a job effectively.
To find out more about providers of these vocational qualifications, check our qualifications database or visit the National Skills Academy for Sport and Active Leisure.
Vocationally related qualifications differ from national vocational qualifications as they cover almost every sector, at every level, and aren't purely based on national occupational standards.
They are offered by a large number of awarding bodies and often range from broad subject areas to specialist qualifications designed for a particular sector, such as:
To find out more about providers of these vocationally related qualifications, check our qualifications database or visit the National Skills Academy for Sport and Active Leisure. Vocational qualification reform
We have been working with awarding organisations and NGBs to develop a a set of eight coaching qualifications based on common units. These qualifications meet the needs of staff, employers and volunteers working in coaching.
In driving growth for the economy, employers need employees with the right skills, in the right place, at the right time.
In order to achieve this, work-related qualifications have been reformed to better meet the needs of employers, employees and people entering work.
Qualifications are now based on what employers need and what learners can easily access whilst including the best parts of existing vocational qualifications. Fundamentally, they bring choice, clarity and confidence to vocational qualifications.
Find out more about the Vocational qualifications reform.
Our Sector Qualifications Strategy (SQS) is viewed as the vehicle to engineer change in the delivery system for qualifications and training that are appropriate to the sector. It is also one of the solutions to the issues and challenges raised in the Sector Skills Agreement (SSA).
The SQS is an opportunity for the sector to establish a coherent framework of education and training to meet its skills requirements.
It has been designed to be flexible and practice-focused so it appeals to learners wishing to enter the profession, as well as those seeking continuing professional development and who wish to further their understanding of playwork.
The foundation degree also equips learners with the skills and knowledge relevant to their playwork employment, so satisfying the needs of employees and employers
Find out more about the degree, such as what it is, what are the benefits and how you can get involved.
If you are a higher education provider or college wishing to develop a Playwork Foundation Degree, you will need to gain the SkillsActive Code of Practice for Training Providers and take the Statement of Requirement and Foundation Degree Learning Outcomes into account.
To find out more about the playwork foundation degree, contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Foundation degrees equip learners with the skills and knowledge relevant to their employment and the needs of employers.
SkillsActive has developed a foundation degree sector framework which covers:
The framework provides employer-led sector specific advice on aspects of foundation degree design and delivery such as entry, progression, learning outcomes, links to national occupational standards, professional bodies and work-based learning.
Development of a playwork foundation degree framework has taken place separately to that of the rest of active leisure and learning, with information found on the playwork foundation degree framework page.
Training and qualifications within our sector cover foundation degrees, vocational qualifications, such as Scottish or National Vocational Qualifications (S/NVQs), Apprenticeships and the new diplomas.
Employers in our sector are often concerned with workplace competence, which is why emphasis is placed on vocational qualifications as they are based on national occupational standards which reflect the skills and knowledge required to do a job effectively.
The vocational qualifications system is changing to become more responsive to the specific needs of employers and learners. The content of qualifications will be more relevant to employers’ needs and qualifications will be more accessible to a wider range of learners.
Part of this reform includes using Qualifications & Credit Frameworks offer a new way of recognising achievement through the award of credit for units and qualifications.
The Register of Regulated Qualifications contains details of Recognised Awarding Organisations and Regulated Qualifications in England (Ofqual), Wales (DCELLS) and Northern Ireland (Ofqual for vocational qualifications and CCEA for all other qualifications).
Visit the Register to view Recognised Awarding Organisations, Regulated Qualifications, Units and Diploma structures.
An SSC can only recommend qualifications for public funding for 19+ year-olds; the Skills Funding Agency (SFA) makes the decision about which qualifications are ultimately fundable, under what conditions, and to what value. Furthermore, an SSC can only recommend for funding those qualifications which meet its Sector Qualifications Strategy (SQS). SkillsActive’s SQS clearly sets out its priorities to be the qualifications which prepare and qualify the learner to do a particular job, and those which allow the learner to demonstrate their competence within a job. In the case of Edexcel BTEC qualifications which do neither of these therefore, SkillsActive cannot recommend these qualifications for funding unless they are with foundation learning, ie at entry level or level 1. This situation cannot change unless the SFA’s criteria for recommending funding changes.
The TQS has been created by the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) to develop a new higher standard for the certification of training providers, including those previously recognised as Centres of Vocational Excellence.
The Standard requires organisations to explain their strategy, the approaches they deploy, and the results they achieve, and to submit this for assessment. Those meeting the high standards required for capability and perfromance receive certification.
The TQS has been open for applications since June 2007, and curently 94 certifications have been awarded across 25 sectors. The Standard is comprised of two parts.
Sport and fitness is an important sector in the UK economy with around 400,000 employees. Employment in the sector has soared since 1999, with higher than average growth expected to continue in the near future.
There are over 28,000 people on the Register of Exercise Professionals (REPs - the register of approved fitness workers). SkillsActive seeks to ensure that these workers, volunteers and new people entering the sector have the skills to meet national standards.
It is government policy to fund quality training and recognise the best training providers. Consequently they will increasingly look to see that TQS Part B has been achieved, so that the growing sector workforce is skilled to the highest levels by quality assured training providers.
This is refelcted in the criteria for becoming a National Skills Academy recognised training provider.
"TQS is a key quality mark for the National Skills Academy for Sport and Active Leisure. It demonstrates engagement with, and responsiveness to our sector employers needs; which are two key criteria we look for in our provider partners. Consequently we expect all Centres of Excellence to have either achieved TQS or to have applied and be working towards it, and we encourage all our larger Academy Providers to work towards it.”
Florence Orban, Chief Executive National Skills Academy for Sport and Active Leisure
SkillsActive fully supports training providers attaining the TQS Part B mark since this underpins the move towards higher quality training and therefore better skilled workers in the sector. SkillsActive can offer a package of direct support to training providers wishing to go through the application process.
For more information get in touch with us or visit the Training Quality Standard website.
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