Professional accreditation and national vocational qualifications: an exchange of experience

Abstract

The Professional Accreditation of Conservator-Restorers (PACR) is a practice-based accreditation scheme, which draws on some of the principles established in the United Kingdom's framework of occupational standards and National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs). The emergent success of PACR shows that these principles can be adapted into a professional context and gain credibility within the profession and among its client constituency. PACR also offers experience that might be transferred back into NVQs. The PACR standards are more focused and concise than most occupational standards; they reflect a more holistic view of competence and professionalism than do many occupational standards; and the assessment process aims to examine practice in an integrated, focused and efficient manner. The success of PACR in an area where NVQs have seen little uptake also begs the question of whether it is always appropriate to package competence-based qualifications as NVQs, particularly at the higher levels.

Re-inventing the wheel? divergent conceptions of the role of internal verifiers within organisations

“…The 'benefit' relationship was seen as reciprocal; the study examined the benefits that accrued to the organisations using IVs, as well as the benefits accruing to individuals acting as IVs. There is an intimidating body of literature on organisational roles, not to mention a proliferating canon relating to the processes of NVQ quality assurance and/or the responsibilities of IVs within these (Wolf, 1995;Betteridge et al, 1996;Ecclestone, 1997;Gokulsing et al, 1998;Konrad, 1998b;Lester, 2001). However, while there was a need to be clear about what was meant by 'role' and what was meant by 'organisation' (both in the selection of field activity and in the analysis of findings) the project did not aim to re-theorise such issues.…”

“…He sees the key flaw in NVQ's credibility among senior managers and workplace trainers as deriving from an over-emphasis on narrow, mechanistic definitions of competence and behaviours, at the expense of developing knowledgeable skills that will facilitate workers' expertise within the constantly evolving high trust and high skills work context (cf. Lester, 2001). IVs should counter this narrowness by taking on the role of continuous innovation in assessment forms.…”

“…Lester, 2001). This resulted in a range of opinions among stakeholders concerning the credibility and status of the IV as the guarantor of sector specific standards.…”

“…Moreover, they tended to perceive their training input not just in terms of inculcating understanding of NVQ assessment structures, but also in the development of an NVQ ethos among assessors, described in terms of the creation of a distinctive 'work-based' NVQ form (cf. Konrad, 1998a,b;Lester, 2001). For example, part-time IVs emphasised that they sought to support assessors in utilising their occupational knowledge and skills, rather than submerging them in artificial assessment and paper-heavy evidence collection (cf.…”

“…Managing the verification of elements, such as work-based learning and accreditation of prior learning is particularly problematic because these qualifications are operated by many different awarding bodies, in diverse workplace and training settings, using large numbers of assessors and verifiers (Wolf, 1995;Bates, 1996;Greatorex, 2000). Consequently, vocational qualifications are not always amenable to the monitoring procedures that are used in more centralised assessment systems (Lester, 2001). For this very reason, the work of internal verifiers (IVs) is integral to ensuring that the operation of these qualifications meets the local needs of learners and employers, while also maintaining reliable quality nationally and throughout occupational sectors.…”