Professionals

New vocational pathways from City and Guilds

Hiran H. SENEWIRATNE

SKILLS DEVELOPMENT: The City and Guilds new International Vocational Qualification (IVQ) in teaching, training and assessing learning has been designed to provide a flexible and progressive approach to the latest skills and global practice, Country Manager - City and Guilds International, Mufthy Hashim said.

He said it also updates City and Guilds current portfolio of international teaching and training IVQs which are

 popular and highly respected in nearly 100 countries where they are delivered through City and Guilds approved centres.

According to Hashim they offer more than 30 qualifications in Sri Lanka in 800 fields. It conducts classes in 60 approved training centres mainly in Colombo, Kandy, and Galle districts and intends to expand to rural areas as well.

The new IVO offers two routes, namely, Advanced Diploma and Specialist Advanced Diploma. These qualifications have been designed to provide essential knowledge and practical teaching, training and assessing skills for practitioners at every stage of their career, he said.

Currently it has more than 3000 students registered with them and the entry qualification for this is GCE O/L and the most popular programme is the engineering programme.

But it offers many programmes including those on the hospitality industry; telecommunication engineering, hairdressing, catering, beauty therapy; automotive Engineering, and travel and tourism.

The employability for this qualification is 100 per cent and most of them are employed overseas. Many Sri Lankan companies including Sri Lanka Telecom, Sri Lankan Airlines, Dialog GSM, recognise the qualification, provide training and recruitment, he said.

The main areas of learning within the advanced diploma are covered by five mandatory or core units, namely, identify learners’ needs, plan and prepare learning, delivery learning, assess outcomes and evaluation.

Having achieved this firm foundation of essential skills and knowledge, successful candidates may progress to the specialist Advanced Diploma by completion of two further units chosen from coaching and mentoring, e-learning, management of training, assessing competence and quality assurance, he said.

These qualifications have been designed to provide essential knowledge and practical teaching, training and assessing skills for practitioners at every stage of their career he said.

These qualifications are at certificate level and Advanced Diploma level and the Advanced Diploma level is equivalent to the second year degree programme of a university, Hashim said.

Both the Advanced Diploma and specialist Advanced Diploma are assessed by a theory examination set and marked by City and Guilds, plus a variety of practical assignments based around actual workplace activities to demonstrate candidates’s skills, applied knowledge and understanding.

Hashim said that each optional unit can be offered as a stand alone award in its own right and City and Guilds has even developed one especially for its global network of external verifiers.

Soon all ‘City and Guilds’ appointed external verifiers will be required to have the unit to ensure that quality assurance standards are applied consistently for all City and Guilds approved centres regardless of location.

City and Guilds is one of the largest international vocational awarding bodies in the world. With the headquarters in London, it offers a range of IVQs and business support qualifications are delivered globally by some 8,000 approved centres with local support from an international network of local office agents and external verifiers.