That's all folks

The time has come, it's the end of the blog as we know and I feel fine (quote ... sort of...Michael Stipe of REM). As I am no longer directly a member of the quality team I feel I have no real input into this blog and suggest that should anyone else want to take the reigns then please feel free but I simply don't have enough knowledge to share with you all now that I am on the outskirts of Quality. It's been fun, and I hope you have enjoyed this slant on the updates I've posted but as a detriment to my twitter account (which I also can't be hooped to update) It's time to sign off. I will leave this blog running without update until Jan 5th 2011, if anyone wants the login details for it then give me a shout, otherwise it's goodnight from me and goodnight from him.

Inspection update

The TQI team has now visited and inspected 13 of our 31 academies and intend to push on with the remaining sites with some vigour and enthusiasm over the next 6 weeks before the academies start exam preparation. We have seen some outstanding teaching and learning and every academy has done it's utmost to make us feel welcome. Feedback has generally been well recieved and we have also witnessed the reactive actions to this on subsequent acdemy visits. With so many academies and trainers to inspect it is good to know that what we are doing is making a positive impact to the most important people in this process, the learners. I feel a prize maybe on the cards for the best OTL per intake. Thoughts?

Company Conference 2010

At last an opportunity for us all to get together and have a few social drinks, listen to our illustrious leaders convey their vision for our future along with a nice bit of grub..... a few of us took the opportunity by the literal horns... nuff said Mr T!

Twenty One - not out!

News on Friday was that our External Verifier could find nothing amiss with the twenty one portfolios inspected and complemented us again on the quality of our assessment and verification. We all know we can improve on this still so it's up to us now to drive forward with quality and standardisation. Well done to all involved... no doubt a complimentary email from our resident QM will be conveyed to the company hierachy.

More new additions....

We welcome two new additions to the Quality Team, Chris Lee and Victoria Kiernan, both of Birmingham academy. This now means we are depleted in the Facilitator numbers so a bit of recruitment required again to get us back up to full strength.

A solid start....

...and we're off!!!! The first few weeks of the intake have gone without too much of a hitch. We have a new Quality Manager (although the quality of the aforementioned manager is questionable! Only messing! I'm genuinely pleased with the appointment) we have two additional RQV's soon to start in the Midlands thus bringing the Quality Team to full strength. Assessment and verification has been carried out to a good standard and with the inclusion of moderation this intake the quality is getting better and better. With regards to my own department (Training Quality Inspectorate) we have carried out inspections of the three larger academies so far and are more than happy with the standard presented, obviously there are areas for development but we feel we are harsher than ofsted which can only be a good thing! We are now breaking into regional inspections with Wilson and I doing Derby this coming Wednesday (13th Oct) and Rod and Andre doing Luton on Thursday (14th Oct). As we look to improve the quality of every area of our programme we will be branching into inspections of progress, standards and quality meetings, intake interviews, employment interviews etc. As OfSted will look at more than just training, assessment and verification then so must we. All in all we are on the right track and doing well. Keep up the good work amigoes!

Inspection Ready???

The schedule for the Training Quality Inspectorate team has been confirmed with September and October seeing the inspection of the larger academies, Manchester, Birmingham and London. The role of the inspectorate team is to inspect and evaluate the efficiency and effectiveness of the organisational training centres, inclusive of all elements, training, assessment, administration, auditing etc. The TQI (Training Quality Inspectors) ensure provision of education and training meets the needs of learners and to accelerate the pace of quality improvement by identifying strengths and areas for improvement, highlighting good practice and judging what steps need to be taken to improve provision further. This practice will, over time ensure that every academy is consistently inspection ready so if OfSted were to walk through our door unannounced we would be 'good to go'!

National Trainer Meeting

The trainer meeting has come and gone, a thoroughly enjoyable experience from Breakfast to Booze and all inbetween. I look forward with a beer fueled eagerness to the company meeting due to take place in November. For those who experienced their first taste of the national comradeship, team spirit and togetherness that these conferences present, this will stay with you for a long time... it's great to be Zenos! Be proud, stand tall and drink your body-weight when the opportunity presents itself!

The Knowledge Base

I have reignited the knowledge base due to the fact that we have an increased number of new trainers and new quality staff. The link is at the bottom of the page and you will need to register to log questions or view questions and answers already handled. I think this will be a useful tool going forward but I need to get it approved before we can roll it out to the ATM's/RTM's, in the interim period we can use it in a trial capacity.

The good old days?

It's amazing how far we (as individuals) have come in such a short space of time, almost everyone in this photo has moved into a different role within the organisation or departed for pastures new. Lou, Bob and John are working elsewhere, but together. Nicky is now a RTM, Dave is a Senior Trainer, Tov is a RQV, Andre is our Key Skills specialist, Brendan is our Programme Manager (looking at further progression), I'm the TQI (Who'd have thought eh?) Darla and Ryan headed back to the states, Laigh had to leave due to her massive crush on me (not...!) Vim really had to leave after the debacle of Alton Towers leaving only Chris and Charles as our experienced facilitators. Things sure have changed here on Waltons mountain.... goodnight John-Boy.

At full strength and almost ready to rock!

The good news is we have now got our full quota of facilitators and verifiers for the next intake! Woohoo! The bad news is we are still without a Quality Manager but hopefully this will change before we kick-off on the 13th September. Regardless of the aforementioned vacancy I feel we are well placed to tackle this intake with the bite of a great white shark and improve on the quality of output, assessment and verification from the previous intakes.

Nearly, but not quite!

Hopefully we will soon have our full quota of Facilitators for next intake, BC and I are interviewing three candidates on Wednesday for the final vacancy in London academy, ideally we want a strong applicant to cope with the rigours of such a large and to some degree underperfroming academy. Updates to follow on Wed.

Transfer Centre

We have a plethora of new facilitators on our books now, it has been a successful transfer window with many of these signings on free deals... although we did have to fork out agency fees to some.

More arrivals to follow...

Today brings news of even more potential arrivals to the facilitator team. A plethora of candidates have been put forward to 2nd interview with some of these occuring tomorrow (23rd July). We are also looking at recruiting from within the Programme Assessor team which supports our investment in our own people. Additional news that we will also now be recruiting for another RQV/SRQV has been welcomed, we need as many 'eyes on assignments' as possible for the coming intake, with an additional 500+ learner predicted, this will impact the amount of verification we need to accomplish to maintain our sampling strategy.

Suit Up

It's a fancy logo, that's all. Would be nice on a T-Shirt

Breaking News!

Joseph Flannigan - Facilitator for Manchester Academy
Anthony Boal - Facilitator for Warrington/Preston Academy

Both the above will start with us on the 2nd August, thus allowing Tov and Pov to start their new roles. Those unsuccessful for the Fac roles have been earmarked for future positions in Facitator and Associate trainer gaps as they arise.

Welcome to the dream team

We will have new comrades in arms within the next 2-3 weeks, names to follow after the official acceptance of the offer.

Recruitment Drive Complete

Thankfully the decision did not reside at my doorstep as it would have been very difficult to choose betwen all the 5 shortlisted candidates for the Northern FAC vacancies. However, that said, I am happy with the appointments made by our resident RTM and look forward to welcoming them to the dream team.

Slots filled... easy as A, B, C

2 vacancies, 5 applicants, totalling 10 interviews. Today we will have made an offer to a couple of new facilitators which will bring our team up to full strength in the Northern Region. Of all the candidates interviewed I have no doubt that they will all do a great job for us as it was apparent at interview that they already hold the key attributes of what makes a good/great/fantastic facilitator. Each of them had their own, individual attributes but they all had bags of motivation, determination, professionalism and, as they say in the singles ads - GSOH. I will keep you all updated with progress from the remaining 2nd interviews today and will hopefully be able to report that we have two new colleagues soon.

As we approach the final couple of weeks of the intake it appears we are almost there in terms of marking, assessment and verification. Yesterday we began claiming for those who have achieved the framework and have now prioritised marking by academy for those learners with only 1 or 2 elements outstanding, again allowing us to claim prior to graduation. With the FAC's now taking a firm grip on the outstanding unassessed tasks we hope to apply a combined effort of everyone to assess the C2.3a's over the final week of the intake. We have a marker task force on standby for the final week should we require any additional rework to be marked. Today in the trainer meeting the academies will be instructed now to submit all unassessed due, reworks and reworks of reworks into AP by the 23rd or risk not having their learners work marked in time for graduation. Although it is feasible to have some learners back after graduation to complete any absent or incomplete elements but we would rather not have that struggle.

Interviews-a-plenty!

Today I am entrusted with the responsibility of identifying suitable Facilitator candidates for the 2nd interview stage. The first interviews have so far thrown up a mixed bag of applicants, one in particular showed great disgust at the quality of the brew in the coffee machine, this may have dropped him 5 marks!! These drinks form the lifeblood of assessment and without at least 17 lattes per day you will never reach the target 40 Tasks. An update on the highlights of 1st interviews to follow.......

All hands on deck!

And so it begins, life without our Senior Southern RQV. We are all mucking in, taking on extra tasks and chipping in where we can to ensure the void is covered without too much disruption. Due to the aforementioned departure my own promotion has been put on hold for the interim period but not to worry, small sacrifices for the greater good. The Show Must Go On (as said by Mr Mercury).

Gone in 60 seconds...

Sad news filtering through today that our comrade and font of all knowledge has parted company with the organisation. A massive, unfillable void has been left and there is an absolute uphill battle on the horizon trying to compensate for the experience and knowledge we have lost with the departure of one of the most respected, helpful and knowledgeable people I have had the pleasure to both work with and call my friend. Our loss is somebody elses gain.

For those who missed the announcement, there wasn't one! B'ah! Proven wrong again.... The good news is that now BC has had his RRO's confirmed then this maybe the final piece that needed to be agreed before the announcement of the restructure being conveyed to the company. I hope that this is now in the pipeline and that we no longer have to shrug our shoulders, play dumb and grunt a general "I know nowt" in the direction of those who query what is going on in Quality Assurance.

Changes soon to be officially ' a foot '

News today is that the official notification of the restructure of the Quality Team will be sent to the organisation. Let's hope so, I don't particularly like keeping things from those who we have to work with day in- day out.

New Recruits Needed

It was confirmed recently that we need around 8 additional facilitators to cover the increased amount of academies/learners and to fill in for the those who have left us either due to promotion or for pastures new. BC has a plethora of C.V's (around 20) to peruse so the signs are good that we will be getting the required reinforcements sooner rather than later. I plan to assist with the recruitment of the Tov and Pov replacements in the North as well as partake in a 2nd interview today for JP's replacement. If I could take this oportunity to remind everyone of the 'Refer a Friend' scheme, it's a good incentive to make a few quid if you know anyone who could do a job in assessing/training/intake/employment etc. If you have any absolute wierdos who could probably do a mediocre job but you are just interested in the money then send the C.V. to the 'Refer a Fiend' scheme (get it?).

The record has been set...

Today I became the owner of the fastest recorded professional discussion in the history of NVQ. 1 Minute and 43 seconds to complete today's NVQ Task 14!! Don't for a second think I compromised quality in any way, shape or form. I had the remaining two members of the class for the last session, I asked them to read over their notes before coming in so everything was fresh in their minds and this in conjunction with my military typing training produced the phenomenon that is the super-fast PD. I managed to complete 54 learners in a little over 1 hour 30mins taking into account the morning break. All files were placed in the respective learner folders, the tracker updated and conveyed to QAA. Now beat that!!!

Drowning in a sea of NVQ....

There comes a time every intake where you think, "we have an awful lot to do and not much time left to do it in". Well this intake it has occurred a little earlier than predicted, lets just call it good forward planning thus allowing us adequate time to recover and remedy!! The truth is that the Facilitator team, now being part of the training posse have been used to do other things as opposed to the scheduled assessments, this combined with a depleted number of assessors and an increased amount of learners has culminated in a bit of a panic.... fret not... we will adapt, improvise and overcome...just as we always do.

....and breathe!

And after all the worry, concern, panic, preparation, planning and checking, double checking and the final triple check I am pleased to report - ALL IS WELL!

The EV picked up two minor observations which require no actions and in addition to this he took the time to compliment us on our processes, procedures, management, structure etc. stating that it was easy to see why we are a grade 1 provider and could see no reason as to why this could not be the case going forward. So thanks to all those involved with this visit, the time you have all given up to ensure that this was a success is greatly appreciated and without doubt proven to be essential. CHEERS!

It's D-Day!

Take cover!!! Incoming!!!

These are the calls of desperation that I have yet to hear from the Quality Team, meaning that all is running smoothly with today's visit. Let's just hope that long may the silence continue! As they say, "No news is good news" apart from when you are waiting for the paper boy to deliver your copy of the currant bun....

External Verifier Visit Looms!!

The preparation for the EV visit is slow going but as a wise man once said
"Time spent in preparation is seldom wasted"

We have enlisted the help of the newly promoted RQV's and with the additional preparation day now added to our planning we look to be in a good position. Standby for updates following the visit.

Here Comes The Calvary!!!

Congratulations to Steve, Teresa and Sukvinder on their promotion into the Quality Team. It's fast, it's furious, it's awesome! That's how we roll in Quality Assurance!

Reinforcements imminent

Today interviews are being conducted to strengthen the quality team in both the North and South. All shortlisted applicants will undoubtedly add something to our team and I can't wait to welcome the new recruits to the RQV role, it's just like Top-Gun for Facilitators!! Just ask BC.

Communication, no frustration... (so far!)

C2.3B and C2.2 appear to be going without too much of a hitch, this surely must be down to the increased quality being produced by the academies along with the high standard of marking and verification exercised by the Quality Department (inclusive of the Programme Assessors). With C2.3A due to be ready for assessment in the not too distant future this could be our best intake yet with regards to communication C2 results, the gauntlet has been thrown down to the much praised Facilitator Team to produce the goods with the C.V. assessment.

It's all going to plan (so far)

We have progressed from marking 504/403's and AON's onto C2.3B and the initial results are extremely positive. Yesterday we marked around 300 assignments with only a 3% fail rate which is an absolutely massive improvement on last intake where the C2.3B was extracted from ADITP 501. Concurrently we are marking the additional academies 042 assignments as they are staggered from the normal intake timeline, again this generally looks very good with only a handful of fails so far.

Treeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeemendous!

KS EV OK

The above biagrams may confuse some, but those in the know will be able to decypher without too much difficulty. We recently had a Key Skills External Verification visit which went without issues (less having the wrong cover sheet in a couple of portfolios). Words such as beautiful, well presented, lovely detail and excellently documented were heard from our External Verifier which is always good news! Thanks to everyone who was involved in the preparation for this meeting and a special thanks to the TCM for getting us hob-knobs and sausage rolls!!!

Da' heavy mob!

I was visiting a certain 'unamed' academy today where I entered the gents to be confronted by two 'wide boy' learners who welcomed me with a "Alright Sir, what you in here for?" as if it was their office and I had disregarded common manners by storming in... I replied with "Just a No.1 mate, however if it's all right with you I'd like to do it without your company" and with that they vacated... bloody cheek!

After all this time...

You think the dark days are behind you and then you get a call asking "Do you know anything about such and such learner, he was one of heavy heads?" time for a scream at the top of my lungs, a rhythmic slamming of my head against the wall for a period of 2 or more minutes and I'm ready to respond to that enquiry with a "No! Never heard of him" slopey shoulders from now on seeing as after the 23rd nobody will have my back covered.... sad times!

A 'oh!' N...

Good news coming from the academies today that the majority of learners are grasping the assignment at the first attempt and that support is not being exhausted class to class. Covering for the Cirriculum Manager today as point of contact for all AON enquiries I was initially alarmed to have only recieved four enquiries... but when checking in with the academies it appears all is well... so far so good. Having the extra day in the schedule for checking will no doubt enable any errors which evaded the eyes of the trainer and support staff to be remedied. As the very wise Harvey Walden screams.... "Keep it going"!

AoN - A real treat

AoN this week everyone, this intake we have included an extra day so that the trainers and support staff (Facilitators, Associate Trainers, people off the street such as buskers and sellers of the Tramp Times) can check through the assignment and ensure there are no issues where the learner has failed to meet the N2 requirements prior to formal assessment. Here, if a learner has gone off on some mad tangent there is an opportunity to rework this thus improving the 'real' first time pass rate. Enjoy everyone.

The Don's!

I'm thinking about an award ceremony for excellence in asssessment, named 'The Don's', honourable mention to The Tov for the inspiration, the current portfolio I am IV'ing is really top notch!

Easter Weekend

Is it wrong that I constantly feel the need to check my blackberry? I'm concerned that I cant swtich off. It will be even worse when my mentor and top mate leaves later this month, I could guarantee to get an email from her at any unsociable hour or during weekends and holidays... ahh! good times (sentimental sniff).

The Coffee Machine

I have now evolved from the classic #14 (Coffee with extra milk and extra sugar) to #92 freshbrew coffee. After about 12 it tastes like tar but it certainly gets you firing on all cylinders first thing on a morning.

504/403

Hectic few days, disasters occuring across only a few academies, wrong images used in one, staff abandoning posts in another... lucky we have the ever reliable Facilitator team on hand to steady the ship...

In one of the new academies today checking through the near completed assignments, quality looks good so a big thumbs up to the trainers here.