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Per Ardua ad Astra

That's the motto of the RAF, isn't it? ONWARD and UPWARD (It's hard work getting all the way to the stars!"). For me, however, no aeronautics: it's just that it has taken me an incredibly long time to rebuild this website - and I'm not finished yet!

The process began when I moved my Internet Service Provider from Easyspace to BT Connect last autumn. I found that among the new perks was a set of weekly statistics showing how many hits I had got in the previous week. It has averged out to date at over 200 hits per week, which is good when you think about it, but what's astonishing is that it peaked at around 450 hits per week in the summer months. Why, I wonder? Was it something to do with all these bored schoolkids with too much time on their hands lookjing at every website they could find? I doubt it, but now we're back to term time again, the figures have dropped once more.

However it got me thinking. What is this website FOR? What should I do with it? Answers, please (but NO rude ones) by e-mail to myself chris@chrismca.com, Last year I invented the concept of the“Six ‘Is", which I said were INFORM, ILLUSTRATE, INVITE, IDEAS, INSPIRE and INTERACT. To these I have added another. There are now SixIs and one T. The T stands for Tools.

What I do best is to put people through NVQs and SVQs especially if I can try to make the process of gaining one of these qualifications as easy for them as possible. As the HomePage explains, we deliver NVQs and SVQs and specialise in MAKING THESE EASY; easy for candidates and other deliverers alike.Want to know more?

More Useful Tools

The big innovation this time is the provision of more useful tools. These tools are meant to prove useful for NVQ/SVQ candidates, their Centres and deliverers alike. What we have is the text of all the Units we normally deal with, beginning with the Units for our most popular qualifications for Managers, Assessors, Verifiers and Trainers,

The Text of Units

Ideas come to me slowly and piecemeal. This one was no different. When I visit clients and Centres I frequently get asked for the text of NVQ/SVQ qualifications and Units. I could, of course, carry them around on my laptop, but slowly I began to realise that it would be better to post them on this Website so that clients and Centres could download them on the spot.

The Units on this Website are available in three formats: .doc, .pdf and .html. And here they are, well, most of them anyway, beginning with our more popular qualifications, such as those for Managers, Assessors, Verifiers and Trainers. In due couirse, all the Units for these qualifications will be added. To take a look, go now to any of the following:

Units for Managers

Units for Assessors, Verifiers and Trainers.

Units.html

Chris McAllister

Candidate successes!

I think somebody has told the staff nurses at Yorkhill Hospital in Glasgow that when I came to assess them for their A1 Assessor Units I would be asking them if I could take their photographs!The consequence is that most of them have been saying "No", so there are no lovely lassies in this issue (except for Angela, see below).

A1 Assessor Award: Ian Beggs, Malcolm Bigg, Steve Burridge, Fiona Collins, Sandra Cook, Kenneth Douglas, Trevor Frammingham, Andrew Gold, Susam Grady, Robert Harris, Noel Hewetson, Terry Hodgson, Andrew Hupton, Claire Kenyon, David Lamont, Rob Leslie, Campbell McKinnon, John Matthews, Wendy McGregor, David Miller, Kevin Murray, Malcolm Newby, Lindsey Ogg, Stece Pegram, Bob Quigg, Brian Ridley, John Rollason, Michael Rusz, Hazel Speck, Alan Stevenson, Scott Thomson, Kevin Wills, Margaret Wilson, Keith Wise.

V1 Internal Verifier Award: Gordon Boyd, Ron Burns, Keren Gudmunsen, Margaret Holland, Terry McDade, Madelene Rainey, John Smithson, Audrey White,

Level 3 in Learning and Development; Brian Ridley,

Level 4 in Learning and Development; William Wilson.

Level 5 in Learning and Development; John Lawson, Andrew David Hall.

Level 5 in Management. Jamie White.

Coming up fast on the rails we also have Angela Miller and Andrew Hall (Level 4 in Learning and Development), Jim Maccall (Level 5 in Learning and Development) and Stephen Butler (Level 5 in Management)

Angela Miller, who works in HR for the Amey Group, obtained her Assessor Award a year or two ago. She's now almost finished her Level 4 in Learning and Development and intends to go on from there to apply for CIPD membership. Good Luck, Angela!

From Presentation to Podcast

You will recall me mentioning the Institute of Verifiers and Assessors (IVA).in the last issue.

They always hold their Annual Conference, usually in Europe and invariably just before Christmas. This year it takes place on Monday 18th. December in Amsterdam. Last year, in Barcelona, I gave a presentation which argued in favour of Professional Discussions as a useful assessment tool. I have now prepared a "sawn-off" version of this presentation and i am offering to to viewers of this Website as a "Podcast". It takes the form of a short Slideshow, plus a sound commentary. To find it, click here.

The argument in this presentation is that you cannot always expect to deliver NVQs and SVQs by arriving at your client's premises like some "corporate seagull" and dropping a weighty copy of the workbook on theior desks. Because your assigned candidate will be too busy to open it just yet, the weighty workbook will levitate itself from the desk to a high shelf, there to remain, possibly for ever. Here's picture of a busy-looking man:

Busy people will always put off tackling something new unless they are feeling VERY positive.about it. How do we assess candidates who are too busy to be assessed in the traditional ways? Answer; Use Professional Discussion. An Assessor can, by using properly conducted interviews, collect all the evidence needed to complete an assessment in a relatively short time. Just do it my way and learn more by clicking on the Podcast.

So what's next? Two issues arise from the Barcelona lecture (and the Podcast). The first is HOW to carry out Professional Discussions.

Professionalising the Professional Discussion is the title of my next lecture, which is being premiered in the Argyll Hotel, Sauciehall Street, Glasgow on October 9th., courtesy again of the (IVA). What we shall be saying to you is: "Watch This Space".when we are able to publish a distilled version as our next Podcast.

After that, there follows the question of video and/or audio recordings of Professional Discussions. This is a technology we are now looking into. A future Podcast, perhaps?

Chris McAllister