BARBADOS is about to revolutionise both local technical and vocational education and training (TVET) and the local labour market by introducing a new concept in certification.

Entitled the National Vocational Qualification Barbados (NVQB), it is based on a British model of competency-based qualifications used in the TVET field in the United Kingdom and adopted by countries around the world, including Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago right here in the region.

Competency-based qualifications are nothing new, for indeed that is the way that the world of technical and vocational education and training has gone in an attempt to meet the needs of the labour market for graduates who can function immediately as competent workers, once they leave their various training institutions.

However, whereas academic qualifications are intended to be proof of an individual's knowledge of a particular subject, and work-related qualifications (i.e. vocational qualifications) are intended to be proof of preparation for employment, National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) are work-based qualifications that are intended to be proof of an employee's ability to do a particular job.

The NVQB system is hence intended to confirm the competence of an individual to do a job. They will help to take the guesswork out of hiring and evaluating employees because they are based on Occupational Standards of Competence developed nationally by employers, employee representatives, and government.

Commonly called Occupational Standards, they are detailed statements of what people are expected to able to do in their work roles. They can be considered as benchmarks against which the actual performance of people in particular occupational roles can be measured or assessed.

One of the key uses of Occupational Standards is that they can be used to develop competency-based qualifications such as the NVQB. They can also be used to write job descriptions, set organisational standards of performance, identify skills and training needs and develop training programmes, and as the basis for performance appraisal.

Consultant with the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA), Scotland's national awarding body, Dr. Iain Anderson, recently completed the first phase of a consultancy with the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Council to establish an Awarding Body for NVQs in Barbados.

He recounted what led to the establishment of the qualification in the United Kingdom, particularly in Scotland in the 1980s.

He noted that while good qualifications were available they were "discrete, inflexible and unrelated.they were rigid and were not transferable across occupations or job roles."

The process of accessing these qualifications was also rigid and very specific, and while this might have satisfied traditional employment patterns it did not suit the changing needs of the labour market which called for "multi-skilling, flexibility and retraining".

Dr. Anderson explained that Scotland went through a period of high unemployment during which time the government identified the need for a massive retraining programme for the workforce.

"However, training was only offered in further education colleges and there was no work-based training except for the Apprenticeship System and that was also very rigid. One had to enter at age 16 (it was aimed at school leavers) and undergo training for five years," he said.

TRANSFORMING SCOTLAND'S TVET SYSTEM

The emerging problems with the national training system prompted Scotland to embark on a complete revision of the TVET structure, with a modular system being developed that was based on learning outcomes. Importantly, the learning outcomes were based on Standards developed by educators.

"These two (innovations) gave enormous flexibility to the system. For example, you could now start training at any age. Anyone could develop their own qualification based on their needs. (At least ) that was the plan. Then came the notion that education and training be based on skills needs as identified by industry/employers."

This led to the implementation of a redeveloped vocational qualifications system all across the UK. Major Awarding Bodies such as the City and Guilds modified their vocational courses to conform to the NVQ pattern.

"To turn Standards into qualifications, they had to be combined with an Assessment and Quality Assurance System.and that was what the Awarding Bodies were doing.

"In the UK, a lot of vocational courses were modified to reflect the Standards and hence became NVQs. Others were kept (as they were) and served a more general purpose, that is, a work-related rather than work-specific or work-based type purpose."

Elaborating on the differences between work-related and work-based vocational programmes, Dr. Anderson explained:

"Standards in the NVQ system are work-based whereas (some vocational programmes) are more general preparation for the world of work. That is they are work-related (or more pre-vocational). They provide knowledge and understanding, that is, the principles or basics of the work area."

"But they don't concentrate on the application of these basics, that is the knowledge and understanding, to the solutions of the kind of problems that would arise in the day to day work. Many of the courses would provide an excellent grounding in the principles behind (a) particular occupation, say for instance accounting."

"(These) programmes (mainly) provide the basic underlying knowledge and intellectual skills, not just manual skills of course, but they do not go on to spend a lot of time in applying these skills in the way that one would have to do in the workplace."

He pointed out that therein lay the difference between an NVQ and a "preparation for employment" course. In order to be awarded an NVQ, an individual has to provide evidence that he or she can function competently in a real work environment.

Drawing reference to the UK experience, where NVQs are offered in such areas as management and health care, Dr. Anderson noted that a person graduating with a university degree in management but little or no experience would not be able to gain an NVQ in management unless he or she was able to apply the knowledge or the understanding of management principles in real situations.

"So the assessment would be assessing you (the candidate) managing and if you did that successfully then you would (get) the NVQ. The objective of the NVQ is to measure (or) certificate your ability to actually put into practice the principles you may have learned in the degree. What would be assessed is not 'do you understand the principles involved?' but you (the candidate) applying the principles or training in real life situations."

The NVQB therefore offers companies that send personnel to train the opportunity to measure training returns. With the emphasis on an individual or employee's ability to apply knowledge received during training, the company has the chance to measure the effectiveness of such training in the workplace.

THE SUCCESS OF THE NVQ PROGRAMME IN THE UK

Within the UK, NVQs have achieved much success and are now considered mandatory for job applicants who want to ensure their chances of employment. Professional bodies, which are responsible for the continuing professional development or training of their members, have also embraced the format of NVQs.

"It is now (part of) the national psyche. If you look at a job at job adverts you expect to see that NVQ qualifications are (requested). Parts of the employment sector that have gone wholeheartedly for them, Marks and Spencer, Personnel (managers), etc, not so long ago, were saying that 'yes, this is an improvement on what we had before, we can make a lot of this system, we can use it," Dr. Anderson noted.

"For employees it opens up a whole new range of possibilities for them and it enhances their self esteem, having an NVQ. For the employer they see it as benefiting recruitment and retention, they can design more effective training programmes based on standards that they know are nationally accepted."

Dr. Anderson revealed that the SQA enrolment statistics for NVQs for the third quarter of 2003, the most recent ones available, showed that 10, 000 persons had enrolled in 300 different disciplines.

"NVQs are now an accepted qualification, and in many areas of work they are the accepted qualification."

He also examined the relationship between NVQs and university level education. "The majority of university programmes are not designed to set out someone's competence in an occupational area. It is more about self-development than focussing on the job. It is more about teaching you to think."

Commenting on the overall developments in the Scottish educational system, Dr. Anderson said that the focus now leaned more toward integrating fully the vocational education system with the overall education system and placing greater emphasis on the concept of lifelong learning.

"The whole system will have to get even more flexible and more open. It is potentially flexible now but the reality would be that it would become more user friendly in that sense. That is where the focus will be."

NVQS AND THE CSME

With regard to the onset of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy, Dr. Anderson said the adoption of Occupational Standards across the region and standards-based qualifications would make it relatively easy for an appropriate agency to be able to analyse what competence is and to certificate it.

"Whether they are exactly the same or not would not be vital as long as they are generally the same, and you are using standards that have been developed in a systematic way, using a reasonably common systematic language."

Dr. Anderson stressed that the success of NVQs in Barbados would depend largely on having a high level of public acceptance of the programme and maintaining the occupational standards already developed, since they were key to keeping training programmes and standards in the workplace current.