This is the transcript from the online workshop held on Tuesday 19 June on the subject of getting your training accredited.

Pete Hello
Elisabeth Coughlin Hi I came straight here without looking up what today's topic was, sorry.
Stephanie Phillips Hi Elisabeth. This week is a chat week. The topic is...
Clive Hook Getting your training accredited I think.
Stephanie Phillips Thanks Clive - beat me to it!
Clive Hook Training as opposed to training that is.
Elisabeth Coughlin OK thanks.
Stephanie Phillips I'm not really planning to host it today, it's more of a flexible thing for people to put their thoughts.
Clive Hook So is this about how to find accreditation sources?
Elisabeth Coughlin Is this academic accreditation?
Elisabeth Coughlin MAs ?
Rita Naik-Bascombe Hi Stephanie, Elisabeth & Clive.
Stephanie Phillips Hi Rita - thanks for coming.
Elisabeth Coughlin Hi Rita.
Clive Hook Hi Rita what do you think we're here for?
Stephanie Phillips Today's session is a really flexible chat around the topic - could be anything you want to talk about around accreditation.
Stephanie Phillips Does academic accreditation for courses interest you Elisabeth?
Clive Hook OK we've been trying to find out what accreditation is about post NVQ's and the mess that kind of stuff seems to be in now.
Elisabeth Coughlin Well, I have been reading about it a little...
Rita Naik-Bascombe I am a freelance training consultant and I hope I'll be able to find out how I can get the training I provide accredited.
Clive Hook What kind of things do you freelance in Rita?
Elisabeth Coughlin Is this in a business environment?
Stephanie Phillips Rita, we've had a few questions in Any Answers on this - I'll go and have a quick look now.
Rita Naik-Bascombe I basically provide training in MS software and I would like to give my clients/students a certificate to prove that they have reach a certain level - something that is recognised.
Clive Hook I have looked at MS pages and work with accredited partners - do they extend that to trainers?
Rita Naik-Bascombe I'm not sure.
Elisabeth Coughlin Bye everybody, got to take a call.
Stephanie Phillips Bye Elisabeth.
Rita Naik-Bascombe I have been looking at the Key skills website - to see if I can use something like that
Clive Hook You could have a look at the MS site they seem to talk a lot about what they do for partners - I would guess they're the only ones that could/would accredit their MS stuff.
Stephanie Phillips Looking at Any Answers, the suggestions are to try local colleges, accreditation boards e.g. City and Guilds or OCR, but I guess Microsoft would be your best bet.
Clive Hook What's the Key skill site?
Clive Hook Hi Richard.
Richard Sergeant Afternoon.
Clive Hook I haven't heard of the Key skills site - is this a government thing?
Richard Sergeant I shall be popping in and out over the next 20 mins, so please excuse me.
Rita Naik-Bascombe City & Guilds Key skills.org was set up for post 16 education to help young people and adults reach a certain standard in English , maths & IT.
Clive Hook OK is this part of the City and Guilds site then?
Rita Naik-Bascombe No I think it is a govt site - but I could be wrong.
Clive Hook Hi Peter what do you know about accreditation?
Rita Naik-Bascombe Basically what I want to do is to give my clients something to take/give to potential employers that will demonstrate that they have reach a certain basic level in IT.
Stephanie Phillips Yes, think it is a government site.
Clive Hook What about the Computer Driving Licence thing I've been reading about - is that too basic?
Stephanie Phillips Rita, have you tried any of the accreditation boards?
Rita Naik-Bascombe No, I was just looking at City&Guilds - its about £20 to sit their level 1-3 tests
Peter Kelly I know very little about accreditation, my reason for joining is that I circulated the detail of these workshops to people in BT's Learning Professionals Community yesterday and wanted to find out if they could access - unfortunately it appears that our firewall stops access - I'm connected via a standard internet connection.
Stephanie Phillips Peter - there can be firewall problems, but there's some information for technical support guys on the workshop page which should help.
Rita Naik-Bascombe Hi Peter.
Peter Kelly Thanks.
Rita Naik-Bascombe Can anyone expand on the CDL?
Clive Hook I think I've got an address somewhere - I'll go and find it...
Stephanie Phillips Try the British Computer Society?
Clive Hook It gets a mention in one of the DfEE books on online learning that I've been reading but the address turns out to be one of the colleges that is doing it http://www.fife.ac.uk
Stephanie Phillipshttp://www.bcs.org.uk is the British Computer Society web address
Richard Sergeant If one worked for a large enough organisation could you not create your own accreditation with the backing of an academic institution.
Stephanie Phillips Hi Mandy.
Clive Hook This is what we're investigating for one of our corporate clients - the issue is to find the academic institution that is interested enough to bother but credible enough for your learners.
Mandy Sunderland Hi, have I missed anything of great importance yet.
Rita Naik-Bascombe Thanks for all the pointers - I'll look in to them all.
Clive Hook Hi Mandy
Mandy Sunderland What sort of industry are they in.
Clive Hook Who's they?
Stephanie Phillips Hi Mandy - just chatting about accreditation for Rita's IT courses.
Stephanie Phillips What's your interest?
Richard Sergeant Could some of this caution be offset by a sponsorship union of some kind?
Clive Hook What's a sponsorship union Richard?
Richard Sergeant Where by commercial interests of both parties could be extended outside of the initial accreditation. Leading to .. for example...courses that can be sold on or passed on across other business partnerships.
Rita Naik-Bascombe I problem is if a produce a fancy certificate saying person x can now do all these things.... will it hold water with employers?
Stephanie Phillips Good question.
Stephanie Phillips Getting, say Microsoft to rubber stamp it should help?
Clive Hook Probably needs some tie in to some recognised level such as NVQ or similar - but the have been superseded by something else haven't they?
Mandy Sunderland That's the problem we are having at the moment with GISC and SVQ's - what benefit is it to the employee when they have left our company.
Richard Sergeant At least it shows that within that organisation this was valuable.
Stephanie Phillips What's GISC Mandy?
Mandy Sunderland General Insurance Standards Council.
Stephanie Phillips Thanks.
Stephanie Phillips What are you finding?
Stephanie Phillips SVQs should work across the board, surely?
Clive Hook Is there a professional association that covers your industry who might be willing to play ball on this?
Stephanie Phillips Rita, is the NVQ route going to be of any interest to you?
Mandy Sunderland Encouraging associates on the phone to be motivated into gaining qualifications.
Rita Naik-Bascombe The problem with Microsoft is that their MOUS (MS Office User Specialist) is really for experts and not to demonstrate basic skills.
Clive Hook What about RSA or similar?
Mandy Sunderland Do any of you bench mark your training against other organisations? Are you any off you in call centres?
Richard Sergeant Mandy, sounds tough! Have you thought about trying to put something in place, in real time over the net?
Rita Naik-Bascombe I think City&Guilds and maybe NVQs may have some merit - need to investigate further. In the mean time nice chatting and thanks for all the pointers. Bye for now.
Stephanie Phillips Good luck Rita, hope you find something. Try Any Answers on the site if you need more advice.
Clive Hook No but I was talking to a guy yesterday who is about to engage with a major piece of training for a telecoms company with call centres - could be he'd be interested in networking.
Mandy Sunderland I have thought about it, one of my main objectives this year is to bench mark myself against other call centres and also look into the following standards that the CCA recommend.
Stephanie Phillips All, I'm going to wind the session up shortly, but happy for people to stay on and chat.
Mandy Sunderland ISO900, Quality Management Systems, and BS8600 Complaints management
Richard Sergeant Thanks for all the input. Au revoir.
Clive Hook Mandy if you find my email address then I can pass on the info to the guy I met.
Mandy Sunderland I would be interest in contacted that guy.
Stephanie Phillips Mandy - click once on Clive's name in the right hand bar of the screen to get his e-mail address.
Mandy Sunderland Thanks Clive.
Mandy Sunderland Thanks Stephanie.
Stephanie Phillips Okay all, let's wind things up there. Thanks for taking part.
Stephanie Phillips Hope to see you all again soon at another session.
Clive Hook Thanks Stephanie - hope to see you soon
Stephanie Phillips Bye.
Mandy Sunderland Thanks a lot, sorry I missed the beginning
Stephanie Phillips Bye Mandy.
Mandy Sunderland Bye.