Accreditation Routes and Opportunities

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Accreditation Routes and Opportunities

• Steve Matthews - Deputy Chief Executive (Quality
  Standards) MBF

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• Workshop Aims
• To identify the benefits of accreditation for
  volunteer mentors/befrienders and the
  organisation
• To explore different accreditation opportunities
  for volunteer mentors/befrienders
• To look at the costs and resource implications of
  offering accreditation
• To report on the research undertaken by MBF
• To explore the opportunities for developing a
  national award/qualification structure in
  mentoring/befriending.

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• Accreditation Overview
• Accreditation is formal recognition via the
  achievement of a qualification for an
  individuals role
• There are various accrediting bodies in the UK
  e.g. AQA, Open College Network, City and Guilds,
  Edexcel to name a few
• Most qualifications currently offered within the
  VCS are customised or vocational programmes
• Only courses that sit on the National
  Qualifications Framework can automatically
  attract funding

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• Accreditation Overview
• The Qualifications and Curriculum Authority is
  the body that decides whether qualifications can
  sit on the framework
• NVQ qualifications have to have a set of National
  Occupational Standards associated with them prior
  to qualification development
• Sector Skills Councils assist with the mapping
  and development of standards

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• Benefits of Accreditation
• For volunteers
• Motivation and challenge
• Increased skills
• Seen as a step towards paid work, further
  education and training opportunities
• Personal development
• Recognition of their contribution

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• Benefits of Accreditation
• For the organisation
• Volunteers are more effective and skilled in
  their role
• Improved retention
• Helps with recruitment of volunteers
• Improved service/results

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Mentoring 70.0 142efriending 30.0 61

• MBF Survey responses
• Total responses volunteers 372
• Total responses co-ordinators 233
• Volunteers not able to achieve accreditation 87
• Volunteers interested in accreditation 81
• Projects not currently offering accreditation 78
• Co-ordinators interested in accreditation
• for their volunteers 97
• for their own roles 97

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• Client groups
• Volunteers Co-ordinators
• Young people 57.1 52.5
• Elderly 5.9 11
• Adults (mental health) 9.6 12.7
• Young people (disabilities) 16.5 9.4
• Adults (disabilities) 3.3 7.7
• Young offenders 17.8 15.5
• Adult offenders 6.9 8.8
• Ex offenders 4.3 8.3
• School children 31.7 30.9
• Refugees/asylum seekers 4.0 6.1

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• Accreditation Options
• Internal accreditation
• External accreditation
• NVQs
• Customised awards
• Award schemes

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• Internal Accreditation
• Involves offering your own award
• Set your own standards according to your own
  organisational requirements
• Achieves many of the benefits without any of the
  costs
• May lack external credibility

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• External Accreditation
• Involves using external criteria to assess
  volunteers
• Standards have already been defined
• Has more status for the volunteer
• May be less focused on the need of the
  organisation
• Is more costly
• Accredited training tends to focus on learning
  achievement rather competence

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• NVQs
• Designed to accredit knowledge and skills gained
  through work experience
• Flexible unit-based accreditation
• No specific NVQ for volunteers or mentoring
• Experience could be used to gain all or parts of
  NVQ e.g. in Advice, Counselling or Management

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• Customised Awards
• Designed to accredit your training programme.
• Local accreditation based on organisational needs
• Progression possible within awarding bodys own
  award structure
• Not on NQF and may not attract funding

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• Customised Awards
• Designed to accredit your training programme.
• Local accreditation based on organisational needs
• Progression possible within awarding bodys own
  award structure
• Not on NQF and may not attract funding
• Awarding bodies offering customised awards
  services include Edexcel, NCFE, City Guilds,
  NOCN

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• Award Schemes
• Recognise achievements and commitment of
  volunteers
• National schemes include
• Queens Award for Voluntary Service
• Princess Diana Award
• Many schemes are organised locally or regionally
• Individual or group nominations
• Other volunteers may feel left out

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• Accredited Courses
• ASDAN Certificate in Community Volunteering
• ASDAN Community Involvement in Volunteering Award
• Youth Achievement Awards (UK Youth and ASDAN)
• Volunteering plus and community partnership
  awards (Mentors award) City and Guilds
• NOCN Community Mentoring and Peer Mentoring
  Awards
• BTEC Level 3 Edexcel
• ASDAN Peer Mentoring
• Advice and guidance NVQ
• University-based certificates

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• Resource Implications
• Be prepared for costs
• Awarding body fees (for registration and
  certification of candidates
• Tutors fees
• Materials and resources
• Set-up costs for customised awards
• Need to set aside time and resources
• Allowing candidates time for training and to
  collect evidence e.g. for NVQs, portfolio
  assessment
• Enabling staff to become trained assessors and
  verifiers

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• Availability of Grants
• Learning and Skills Councils
• V National Youth Volunteering Programme
• Train to Gain (opened to volunteers in Nov 2007)
• Funding bids

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• MBF Research
• High level of interest in development of a
  nationally recognised award structure for
  volunteer mentors/befrienders
• Preferred methods of study included distance
  learning and classroom based learning
• Evidence portfolio preferred method of assessment
• Interest in all levels of awards (38.6 of
  volunteers wanted higher than level 3)
• A high level of consensus from surveys and
  workshops for a generic programme despite
  diversity of the sector

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• Next Steps
• To develop a functional map of the
  roles/competences of mentors/befrienders and
  co-ordinators
• To create a draft qualification structure
• To consult on proposed structure
• To discuss with Sector Skills Councils
  opportunities for mapping to existing standards
• Qualification development funding
• Inclusion of awards on the NQF

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• Further information
• Details of award schemes www.volunteering.org.uk
  /awards
• Learning and Skills Council www.lsc.gov.uk
• UK Workforce Hub www.ukworkforcehub.org.uk
• Qualifications and Curriculum Authority
  www.qca.org.uk
• Train to Gain www.traintogain.gov.uk
• NOCN www.nocn.org.uk
• AQA www.aqa.org.uk
• ASDAN www.asdan.org.uk
• Edexcel www.edexcel.org.uk