At a recent meeting of key stakeholders and employers at The Everglades Hotel, City & Guilds gave an informative presentation on the benefits of the various occupational qualifications on offer to employers, employees and schools and school leavers. The main message of the morning was that the old notion of Certificates and NVQ's as intensive, paper heavy exercises is long gone, City & Guilds are now designing qualifications and study plans to suit each business sector and organisation that they work with. Using technology, businesses have implemented occupations qualifications for staff that are streamlined, mapped to their existing training plans, suit the varied work patterns of different businesses and allow employees to retain their evidence in the natural environment rather than reproducing it in paper format to include in a massive portfolio.

One example of such occupational qualifications is the suite of Contact Centre qualifications available through City & Guilds. Qualifications are offered both for basic work readiness and induction training and at NVQ Level, offering more specific job and industry related training.

Certificates

The Certificate in Contact Centre skills is offered at three levels, all designed to ensure that operations staff are fully trained to the level required by each business. The Level 1 Certificate can be mapped to a company induction for new employees, and can be built upon at various stages throughout the employment career. This is also an ideal qualification for schools to offer Year 12 leavers or Year 13/14 students who will require employment to see them through university.

Level 2 & 3 will take employees further along their training journey, can also be mapped to a company training programmes and can provide the foundation for employees to undertake job specific NVQ training. All three can be integrated into personal development plans, in particular Level 3, which has been used in the initial stages of developing future team leaders.

NVQ's - Level 1 & 2 Contact Centre Operations, Level 3 & 4 Contact Centre Professionals

City & Guilds recognise that the contact centre industry has changed considerably from the days of telesales operators and marketing, and offers a vast range of units within its NVQ framework to reflect this. The NVQ qualification is a vocational, job specific form of training, and it is therefore important that it meets the needs of both the company and the individual. City and Guilds work closely with each business to ensure that they design a programme that fits with company objectives, incorporates and maps any existing training or activities and fits with work methods and shift patterns to ensure smooth integration into daily working life. Examples of integration with contact centres include accessing already recorded calls within the system and assessing them on site, online assessment with staggered assessment times to suit shift patterns and computerised online portfolios that utilise the sophisticated technology already in place within businesses.

Whilst some of the above qualifications are related directly to the Contact Centre industry, City & Guilds are stressing that they have qualifications that can be tailored to suit the demands of any industry or business.

If you wish to find out more about any City & Guilds qualifications, how they can benefit you, your employees or students, please contact Fiona Callaghan on 90325689 or Fiona.callaghan@cityandguilds.com or visit the website www.cityandguilds.com