Business Development

The Development team work with industry and key stakeholders to identify areas of skill and knowledge that are currently not available in training programmes (or are covered by existing programmes that require revision) and agree where these can be developed / revised into appropriate courses / awards. This work involves each Development Manager liaising with national bodies such as the Sector Skill Councils, Government Regulatory Bodies (QCA, SQA, etc), Government Departments (DEFRA, HSE, Highways Agency, Forestry Commission, etc) as well as other training organisations and Awarding Bodies and industry representative bodies such as Trade Associations, large and medium sized management and contracting organisations and individual businesses, including self employed contractors.

Once a development project is agreed, a Technical Working Group/Sector Scheme Working Party, made up of industry experts, is convened to help design and author materials. In many cases the proposal is then sent out to consultation for industry approval before being developed in detail. For most Technical Awards, an illustrated course workbook or skills guide is developed, and this is supported by other relevant materials where necessary. We also produce an Instructor Manual to ensure that all Instructors deliver the course to the same standards. When a final draft of the materials is complete, the course is piloted and Instructors are invited to apply to deliver the course.

For Sector Schemes Instructor and Assessor materials are developed and piloted and then made available on CD. The Development Team also take responsibility for maintaining the currency of all existing courses, from technical accuracy and keeping up with changes in techniques or legislation, to managing the technical updating of our registered Instructors and Asessors for each subject area and overseeing the Quality Assurance procedures and the team of Technical Standards Verifiers (TSVs)/External Verifiers (EVs).