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Dear Colleague,
Welcome to the latest e-newsletter from SFEDI Awards promoting the latest updates within the enterprise skills agenda to our network of approved delivery centres and also those interested in keeping up to date with our activities.
Within this update you will find information relating to recent success for SFEDI Awards, a mention in the Scottish Parliament, a new project being launched by the National Apprenticeship Service and information about the UKs first Small Business Saturday campaign.
In November, SFEDI Awards was visited by the Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation (Ofqual), the Regulator for vocational qualifications within England and Northern Ireland, as part of their normal regulatory duties to carry out monitoring visits ensuring that all Awarding Organisations continue to meet their duties as a recognised body.
We are pleased to announce that SFEDI Awards has been reported as providing assurance of compliance against our regulatory duties and has demonstrated that appropriate policies and procedures are well embedded within its operations to ensure compliance with the general conditions of recognition.
Nic Preston, SFEDI Awards CEO (pictured below), had this to say:
‘I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our centres within our approved delivery network and the team at SFEDI Awards for all their hard work and the support received in ensuring that we continue to operate a high quality service.
SFEDI Awards has experienced continued growth year on year and the brand of SFEDI Awards is being seen in many new exciting arenas including colleges, unemployed, redundancy and prison environments as benefiting those individuals who wish to engage with and take forward their enterprise journey.’
If you would like to see further details regarding Ofqual and how they carry out their regulatory functions please visit their website by clicking here (http://ofqual.gov.uk/) .
SFEDI Awards was delighted to see that our first qualification regulated by the Scottish Qualifications Authority has received a mention in the Scottish Parliament in November.
We are nearly one year on since the launch of the first SFEDI Awards qualification in Scotland, the Diploma in Business and Enterprise Support at SCQF Level 8, and in this time we have already seen our first five completions from one centre, Quality Recognition, and a further centre, the Academy of Leadership and Management, coming on board to deliver this great new product.
Dr. Aileen McLeod, MSP for South of Scotland, raised a motion within the Scottish Parliament on 12th November 2013 congratulating those who had become the first to achieve this qualification within the Dumfries and Galloway Council.
If you are interested in undertaking this qualification within Scotland then you can contact the following centres for further information:
Academy of Leadership and Management (http://www.academylm.co.uk/)
Quality Recognition Ltd (http://www.qrltd.com/)
If you are interested in offering this qualification within Scotland please contact our Customer Service Team who will be more than happy to talk through the process with you.
To see further details of this motion within the Scottish Parliament please click here (http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx?SearchType=Advance&MSPId=2487&SearchFor=AllMotions&DateChoice=3&SortBy=DateSubmitted) .
To see further details of SQA and how they regulate Awarding Organisations within Scotland please click here (http://www.sqa.org.uk/sqa/42159.html) .
Recruiting an apprentice can be a fantastic way for a small business to bring in new talent and gain an extra pair of hands, however, even though 99% of all businesses in the UK are SMEs, the proportion of take up of apprenticeships in SMEs is just under 10%, which is less than half that of larger companies (Holt Review (http://sfediawards.us2.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=9ed5d562829c6bdeac4d9b8b7&id=09ff89b4e0&e=badd3b257a) , 2012).
The National Apprenticeship Service (http://sfediawards.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=9ed5d562829c6bdeac4d9b8b7&id=9e02cdaac6&e=badd3b257a) has kick-started a new project aimed at helping small businesses benefit from sharing their experiences of recruiting and employing apprentices. This project aims to encourage businesses that have successfully taken on apprentices to share best practice, ideas and support, with those that aspire to do so. The objective is to help increase the numbers of businesses taking on apprentices, increase knowledge of best practice when recruiting apprentices, and create an enriched apprenticeship experience for the business and the apprentice.
Do you know any small businesses that would be willing to share their experience of taking on one or more apprentices? This might include how they worked with the training provider, the recruitment process, and how they embedded the apprentice into their business.
These case studies will be featured on a new business facing microsite from the National Apprenticeship Service. This is part of a project to encourage peer to peer mentoring between businesses to support them through the mentoring process. If you know of any businesses that might be interested in getting involved, please make contact here (mailto:[email protected]?subject=Apprenticeship%20Project) .
To keep up to date with this project keep an eye on their website here (http://www.apprenticemakers.org.uk/) .
This year will see the launch of the first Small Business Saturday (http://www.smallbusinesssaturdayuk.com/) campaign in the UK, held on one of the busiest shopping days of the year – the first Saturday in December.
Small Business Saturday is all about encouraging everyone in the UK to support small businesses, both on the day and beyond. If you are doing anything special around this event which you would like us to cover in our next e-newsletter, get in touch here (mailto:[email protected]?subject=Small%20Business%20Saturday%20Campaign) .
As always we at SFEDI Awards are there to help and support you so if you have any questions about this e-newsletter or would like to talk about how you could further develop your centre offer or join our network of approved delivery centres then get in contact on [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]) and we will be more than happy to help.
Best wishes
Nic Preston
SFEDI Awards Chief Executive
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