In this month's issue

CFA announce another series of SASE Apprenticeship Events

Missed out on the CFA Apprenticeship Events series earlier this year?

Want to hear about revised SASE and changes to CFA Apprenticeship Frameworks?

CFA are running half-day workshops for training providers to provide:

• An overview of Apprenticeship changes as a result of revised Specification of Apprenticeship Frameworks in England (SASE)
• Changes within CFA Apprenticeship Frameworks for Business & Administration, Customer Service, Contact Centres, Marketing, Sales and Team Leading & Management
• How to embed Personal Learning and Thinking Skills
• Revised requirements covering Guided Learning Hours
• Information on the new Higher Apprenticeships in Business & Professional Administration (Level 4) and Leadership & Management (Level 5)

The CFA ran a similar series of events in February which proved very popular with training providers. Due to high demand, we have added additional dates as follows:

• 4th July, 10:00 – 12:30 – Leeds
• 4th July, 13:30 – 16:00 – Leeds
• 6th July, 10:00 – 12:30 – London
• 6th July, 13:30 – 16:00 – London

The workshops, at £110 per delegate, will help training providers:

• Understand the new Apprenticeship requirements in England
• Prepare for the new requirements
• Ensure they are well placed for delivery

*There is a 10% discount for Charity Organisations

** There is a 20% discount for group bookings of more than 3 people

Please contact natalie.defreitas@instructus.org for the discount code.

To reserve your place, please book the SASE Apprenticeship Events or contact Natalie de Freitas on 020 7091 2616

National Occupational Standards for Human Resources

Do you work within the HR profession? If so, CFA Business Skills @ Work wants to hear from you!

We would like to invite you to help develop the new NOS for Human Resources (HR) which are currently being reviewed and updated in line with current HR practice, skills and knowledge. The standards describe what a person needs to know, understand and perform in order to carry out the role in a consistent and competent way.

This review, which is being conducted in partnership with the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), will ensure that the functions carried out by HR professionals are current and meet the needs of the profession.

The CFA needs and welcomes your support in reviewing these important standards. Your comments are very valuable to us and taking part is vital in ensuring that we keep up to date with current skills and trends within the HR industry.

The survey can be found here and will be open until Wednesday 22nd July. You can comment on as many, or as few of the draft HR NOS as you like.

Thank you for your support and we look forward to receiving the results of the survey.

Save and learn with the CFA B&A Student Handbook series

Save 10% this summer on orders of 15 or more B&A Student Handbooks!
Simply fill out the order form here and return via email or post to the CFA.

Building your Business & Administration skills with the CFA could never be easier. With three brand new Handbooks available for purchase at Levels 1, 2 and 3 – no matter what stage you are at in your career we have a Handbook for you!

With the release of all three editions in the CFA series, we have organised a special promotional offer of £39.99 for all three books.

Building on the success of the previous editions, all three Handbooks have been written in line with the revised 2010 standards and contain both mandatory and optional units - ensuring that all Business & Administration students get the best of both worlds.

Priced at £11.99, £15.99 and £19.99 respectively, the improved look, easy to read format and complete up to date content will make for a great resource for you and your students.

Simply click here to take you to the CFA Student Handbook series.

City & Guilds registration packages

The recent announcement of the new SASE compliant apprenticeships going Live has allowed City & Guilds to create apprenticeships available as single point registration packages, bringing everything together in one place, for Business & Administration and Customer Services. All our apprenticeships are also available as individual components as well.

Our packages save time, money and are simple to use, which result in fewer errors and less paperwork.

Packages have been created to reflect all the frameworks.

Extra Support –
Our qualifications within the Business & Administration and Customer Services frameworks come with further support. We have created online, on demand support for learners and tutors with sample assessments, lesson plans and forums within our SmartScreen offer. All our qualifications also come with Qualification Handbooks.

We are also the only Awarding Organisation to offer the specialist pathways within the new Business & Administration frameworks:

• Legal Administration
• Medical Administration

The qualifications for these specialist pathways were created in partnership with ILEX (The Institute of Legal Executives) and AMSPAR (The Association of Medical Secretaries, Practice Managers, Administrators and Receptionists), ensuring a direct link to employers and industry requirements.

Visit www.cityandguilds.com/apprenticeships for more information

Genius' Apprentice Has Got the X-Factor

An ingenious apprentice has been paid a major compliment after being shortlisted for a well-respected business award.

Zoe Chatfield, from RecruitmentGenius.com, has been announced as a finalist in the Kent Excellence in Business Awards (KEiBA), ‘Apprenticeship of the Year’ category.

The accolade acknowledges and celebrates apprentices’ exceptional contribution in the workplace. The judges for the category are on the lookout for apprentices that make a real difference in the organisation they are a part of.

RecruitmentGenius.com has enjoyed welcoming apprentices to its business since July 2010. The online recruitment specialist is dedicated to helping jobseekers to find employment, by making it as affordable as possible for employers to recruit staff.

Chief Executive, Geoff Newman commented: “Zoe fully deserves to be a finalist for this award. She has always been very motivated and keen to learn, making her a valuable asset to our firm. I would not hesitate to recommend apprenticeships to businesses; it is both personally rewarding and makes excellent commercial sense.”

Having apprentices within the business has proven invaluable for RecruitmentGenius.com. Excluding directors, three of the firm’s five employees are apprentices, bringing fresh thinking and talent to the business.

Commenting on her apprenticeship, Zoe said: “This opportunity at RecruitmentGenius.com has been such a good decision, helping me with both my education and work experience. I am now much more confident; I never thought I would be able to do so much within eight months. It’s been a real pleasure.”

Zoe is now eagerly awaiting the KEiBA ceremony on 30 June, at Leas Cliff Hall, in Folkestone, where the winner of the ‘Apprenticeship of the Year’ will be announced.

For more information, please contact Geoff Newman:
Tel: 01732 617 460. Email: geoff@recruitmentgenius.com

Zoe Chatfield and Geoff Newman
from RecruitmentGenius.com

New Apprenticeship Certificates have arrived!

The CFA is very happy to report that we have now received the brand new apprenticeship certificates for all completions after 13th April 2011. Any claim forms that have already been submitted to Business Skills @ Work are currently being processed and will be despatched this week.

All certificates will be processed within a ten working day turnaround and priced at £25.00 each. Our registration forms are simple to complete and are available on the CFA website here.

Please note: As the only provider of certificates for the below apprenticeship frameworks, we are now accepting certificate requests for completions after 13th April 2011:

• Business & Administration
• Customer Service
• Contact Centre
• Management
• Team Leading
• Sales & Telesales
• Marketing

We thank you for your patience during this busy time, and if you have any questions, please contact us on 020 7091 9620 for further information.

Campaign exceeds our wildest dreams

The National Apprenticeship’s North East campaign to create as many apprenticeship places as possible over 100 days is being hailed as a huge success after surpassing its original target of 100 apprentices with a phenomenal 1,355.

The ‘100 in 100 campaign’, launched in January in association with the Journal and Evening Gazette newspapers and many of the region’s colleges and learning providers, was so successful that it was renamed the 500 in 100 campaign. That revised figure was passed with five weeks to go.

The campaign’s launch on January 20 was quickly followed by Apprenticeship Week in February, as well as the Government’s announcement in the Budget of a £180m package to fund an extra 50,000 Apprenticeships.

John Wayman, regional director of the National Apprenticeship Service said: “Achieving 1,355 Apprenticeships in 100 days is an absolutely outstanding achievement and I am totally overwhelmed but extremely delighted.

“We never doubted the campaign would be successful, but it has continually surpassed all our aspirations.  We are proud to have played a part in helping to launch the careers of hundreds of young people in the North East, and supplying local businesses with first class committed employees who can contribute to their organisation’s future growth and success.”

The huge achievement has also been recognised on a national level, with Skills Minister John Hayes hopeful of the far reaching implications for the North East.  He said: “I congratulate the Journal and Evening Gazette, the North East’s colleges and training providers and the National Apprenticeship Service for working together to create 1,355 apprenticeships in the North East region over the last three months.”

“Having long championed apprenticeships in Parliament, I want to pay tribute to the businesses and organisations that have helped restore them to their rightful place in our national life – a respected well funded indispensable route for people from all backgrounds to achieve their ambitions.”

As well as highlighting the strong appetite for apprentices among the region’s employers, the campaign also helped to dispel the myth that apprenticeships are the mainstay of skilled trades, such as construction and engineering.

In fact, almost half of the 1,355 apprentices follow programmes in either business administration, customer services, sales and telesales.

To find out more about employing apprentices, please contact the National Apprenticeship Service on 08000 150 600 or visit apprenticeships.org.uk

Asda sets up skills academy

6,000 apprenticeship places have recently been created by retail giant Asda following the launch of a brand new skills academy. Working in partnership with City & Guilds, the scheme aims to open up another 19,000 spaces in 2012 and will offer training equivalent to that of GCSEs up to HNDs.

The bespoke programme is open to all employees and includes training in a number of areas, where it will be possible to achieve a Level 4 Professional Diploma in retail management – giving employees the opportunity to develop their leadership and coaching skills.

Asda CEO Andy Clarke said: “I know personally just how important it is to learn new skills, and how life changing they can be for a young person starting out. Our new academy gives colleagues a bespoke training programme that allows them to develop their skills and careers in a way that suits them."

Question of the month

Q: Does the CFA have a form that apprentices will need to sign to claim for their apprenticeship completion certificate?

A: Training providers need to keep an authorisation document on file (you can download the document by clicking here) that states that the apprentice authorises the training provider to claim their framework completion certificate on their behalf once they have completed their apprenticeship.

The CFA have designed a series of new forms, one of which is a declaration regarding the authorisation form. These can be accessed and downloaded by clicking here.