Public Services Management: Addressed to skill: Two million people have obtained NVQs or are working towards them

FIVE years ago the word 'competence' began to recur in any discussion about work. Surveys showed that two few managers had training or professional skills. Outside management, much the same applied: too many people lacked skills and training. Yet in all sectors skills were vital. Britain had to compete worldwide - and the EC was drawing uncomfortably close. Suddenly, competence became essential.

In an attempt to meet this need, the system of National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) is spreading, setting standards of competence at work. More than 80 per cent of the workforce are covered by these qualifications; 400,000 people have already obtained NVQs; up to 1,500,000 are working towards them.

In 1986, the Government established the National Council for Vocational Qualifications (NCVQ), with a remit to reform and rationalise vocational qualifications, by implementing a system relevant to the need and employment of individuals. The council is the accrediting body for NVQs; achieving them enables men and women to acquire skills and be more employable in a changing, sharper market.

NVQs and SVQs - their Scottish equivalent, accredited and awarded by Scotvec, the Scottish Vocational Education Council - are geared to the workplace. Depending on their occupation, people will be able to move up from level one to level five; levels four and five are for management and approximate to a degree.

Qualifications are based on actual performance: the ability of an individual to do a specific job to the necessary standard. Each is inter-related with other levels on the ladder and with other occupations, and is intended to meet the needs of industry, with standards set by the appropriate lead body. In some cases they are being introduced in areas where none previously existed.

Because there is no set route to achieving competence, units towards a VQ can be built up by Accreditation of Prior Learning (APL), knowledge and experience gained in earlier jobs or courses. And each level provides transferable core skills. So it is that EnTra, the industry training organisation for engineering manufacture, includes among the advantages of an N/SVQ to individuals the fact that it is recognised by employers as evidence of ability to do a job, can be added to and offers a career foundation. For employers, it says, the system is useful for checking employees' competence, identifying training needs and improving cost- effectiveness of training and for increasing staff motivation.

John Hillier, NCVQ chief executive, explains: 'We're extending professionalism across all occupations at all levels. Full NVQs are designed to provide specialised skills and broad competence, which will enable an individual to find employment readily, adapt to changing employment requirements, acquire additional skill and qualifications and to move to another job if necessary. Already the effects are being felt: business improves, staff turnover is reduced. The effect on individuals is very powerful.'

The full NVQ system is still being implemented. New levels are continually coming on stream and additional occupations catered for. For example, NVQs for lecturers in higher and further education are just starting to be worked out. 'A very large number have no experience of training,' says Mr Hillier.

In 1988 the Management Charter Initiative was set up by leading companies and business organisations to develop management standards and competences that would improve performance. The MCI is now part of the NVQ process. It has been appointed by the Government as management's lead body, setting standards that can be used on their own or as a basis for an NVQ. Management is so far the only occupation to have level five in place.

Managerial standards have four key areas: people, finance, operations, information. NVQ levels three, four and five are designed, respectively, for supervisory, first line, and middle management. Standards are now being developed for senior management and should be completed next year.

'We have been developing standards not just for qualifications - the standards themselves are a great benefit,' says Andrew Summers, MCI chief executive. 'A qualification gives an added bonus and incentive. Our latest survey shows more than 10 per cent of UK organisations use our standards; about half use them for qualifying. We think more will go for NVQs as new people arrive.'

Sir Bob Reid is chairman of MCI, which he helped to establish. One of his favourite maxims, it seems, is: 'It's not what you know, but what you do with what you with what you know' - how knowledge is applied in practice. This is the approach taken by the Engineering Council, which represents 290,000 engineers and technicians, and proposes to include NVQs as an integral part of its registration criteria. The problem, says the council, is to specify, in terms of competence, 'the particular things for engineers to do and to know at each level; this should include knowing why they are doing one thing, and are not doing another. There must be opportunities to understand many of the underpinning principles.'

Similarly, the Association of Accounting Technicians has chosen to include a formal written element - 'central assessment' - which forms part of NVQ levels two, three and four. This is to show that an employee has appropriate background knowledge and understanding to support his or her practical competence at each stage. At level two, for example, there are two written papers, of three hours and one hour.

This is unusual in NVQs as assessment in normally entirely practical. But, says Fran Exton- Smith, of AAT's education and training division, 'employers find it reassuring to know we include this underpinning knowledge. They are used to an exam-based system, and have more confidence in it.'

Inevitably, there has been some criticism. In business administration, many colleges and Oatec (Office Administration, Technology and Education Consortium) would like more emphasis on skills. They are also concerned that level four does not reflect the PA's role of support to senior management.

Four lecturers from colleges in London and Surrey - Wendy Nash, Gay Watts, Janet Whalley and Marian Webb - have submitted for consideration their own suggestions for this level. They are backed by the Institute of Qualified Private Secretaries.

Mrs Webb, of Croydon College, explains: 'When we saw the draft standards for level four, some of the management standards had been put into business administration. PAs are mainly in a support role: they need management awareness, not management standards.'

General National Vocational Qualifications (GNVQs) mainly for 16-19 year olds, are currently being introduced in schools and colleges. They provide a preparation for work, while leaving career choice open. There are three levels: foundation, intermediate and advanced. The third is designed to equal two A-levels, or it can be combined with an A- or AS- levels. As such, it could give access to higher education, offering an entirely new route for future graduates.

(Photograph omitted)