I am keen to obtain a training qualification to consolidate the training work that I have been doing for the last two years. Can anyone tell me how much credibility the TAP Certificates ("Training Design & Development Skills ", etc.) have among employers as opposed to the CTP ? My research always seems to bring me back to recommendations from The Training Foundation itself, so some independent advice would be of interest !
Morag Macnair
10 Responses
Practical and Relevant
I completed my TAP diploma in e learning a couple of years ago and found it practical and relevant. If the other TAP certificates are as good they are certainly worth doing.
CTP is probably still the qualification most recognised by would-be employers but I think TAP is becoming more and more well known.
I don’t know if this helps but I am always happy to sing the praises of TAP.
TAP 2009 Survey
Morag
The 2009 TAP Survey, conducted and published by the British Institute for Learning & Development and externally and independently verified by Dr Philomena Alston, is avialble via http://www.tap-training.com. It contains responses from 726 L&D practitioners working in 379 employers. The results are impressive by any standard.
Also, this website has more than 800 testimonials from attendees on TAP courses during the last year. It also lists more than 150 employers who have formally entered into TAP Partnership arrangements. New TAP Partners in April include Aviva, Capita Learning & Devlopment and, yesterday, Rolls Royce. All pretty good indicators of where TAP currently sits I should have thought.
CTP and TAP are different
Morag
Although not independent advice, my opinion is that if you are looking at comparing the two, I feel that you are comparing apples with bananas – both fruit but different tasting, different shapes and normally used in different ways.
Having said that, the Certificate in Training Practice is more widely recognised in my experience and is more likely to be a pre-requisite for trainers outside of the IT arena, where TAP has its roots.
There are, of course, many other alternatives to both but if you are comparing the two, CTP every time for me.
Regards.
CTP first & follow with TAP certification.
Hi Morag. I suggest CTP is the place to start as a wider range of skill sets & information for trainers is explored. Once done TAP courses can consolidate CTP learning & helps with structure & focus for your training design & delivery. Both have been valuable to me, if its new ventures you are looking for then it has to be CTP first in my opinion. Good luck.
Research
Morag – so as to avoid receiving advice from people who might have vested interests in promoting either CTP or TAP can I suggest a quick piece of research which wouldn’t take 30 minutes? It will supply you with some good, hard evidence about which qualification the majority of employees looking to recruit staff appear to put greater stock in.
Look through some training job adverts either on line or paper published and make a tally of those that ask for the CTP qualification or the TAP accreditation, there’s your answer.
Quality of learning that counts
I would advise that which ever option you decide to take to seriously look at the providers. I think it is not so much about the qualification, but the learning that counts. I recently completed my CTP with a fairly large provider, and had the worst learning experience of my professional career. The emphasis on the course was that the CTP was a “tick in the box”, yes CTP is recognised and a vast majority of providers look for CTP on C.V’s and if that’s all you want then fine, but if you’re interested in the learning experience then research your provider as much as the qualification you choose. Don’t be afraid to ask questions of providers, find out what their quality assurance process is, whether they have good feedback and to what level they conduct feedback.
google searches
Gary Platt’s suggestion was useful..for an indicator of employer valuation…
A Google seasrch on ‘vacancy TAP trainer’ produces 4,590 listings) and one on ‘vacancy CTP trainer’ produces 441 listings.
QED?
TAP vs CTP
Thanks to all of you who have first hand experience of TAP, who have shared your views. All of this will help me with my evaluation. Thanks to you both too, Garry and Nick, but what I was looking for was something to complement the online research I have already done – but thanks anyway!
Google?
I’m not certain I agree with Nick Mitchell’s suggestion of Googling those terms as the returns are I think misleading to say the least.
For me the term ‘vacancy TAP trainer’ returns 50,000+ hits. However a quick review of just the first five pages clearly shows that a significant number of those returns are not job adverts. A considerable number appear to be press releases appertaining to TAP and other none relevant web pages.
Doing as I initially suggested provides a much clearer picture of the situation where as the Google response does not I believe.
However, it appears the situation is irrelevant now anyway.
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