Tutor Standardisation Training
Wednesday October 1st, 2014
Level 2 Training
Agenda
09:30 – 10:00
Registration and Coffee
10:00 – 10:15
Welcome and Introduction to AIM Awards Counselling qualifications
10:15 – 10:30
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10:30 – 10:45
Introduction to new Specification and Level 2
10:45 – 11:00
Any Questions?
11:00 – 11:30
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Why are we here?
What do we hope to achieve?
How do we begin to achieve it?
Learning Outcomes for the Day
Understanding Level Descriptors
Assessing Levels
Schemes of Work
Lesson Plans
Getting up close and personal with Specification
Agenda – Part 2
11:30 – 11:45
Setting the Level –Assessing Level 2 (Group Exercise)
11:45 – 12:15
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12:15 – 12:30
Feedback
12:30 – 13:15
Lunch
13:15 – 13:45
AIM Administration and Procedures
13:45 – 14:15
Setting the Levels and Assessing Level 2 Skills Practicals / Group
work/Exercise
14:15 – 14:30
Feedback
14:30 – 15:00
Any questions
15:00
Close
Assessing the journal (Skills)
Assessing the Learning Statement (Introduction)
Objectives
1. a good understanding of the term “level” in the context of
QCF qualification
2. a good understanding of the principle of using level
descriptors to judge standards
3. reached agreement with colleagues on the location of a
pass/refer boundary, for the level under consideration
4. understood the importance of mapping learning outcomes
to a scheme of work, to both assessment and verification
processes
5. applied the principles of assessment to exemplified written
work
Objectives
5. applied the principles of assessment to exemplified
written work
6. applied the principles of assessment to practical role-play;
7. understood the administrative processes necessary to
record and report candidate achievements
8. know and understand the importance of AIM’s coursework
deadlines
9. know the role of external verifiers and other awarding body
officers
10.know other sources of help and/or tutor support from the
awarding body and tutor networks
What are QCF Qualifications?
• QCF qualifications are made up of units that have a
credit value (10 hours of learning equals 1 credit)
• Qualifications can be one of three different sizes:
•
•
•
Awards (1 to 12 credits)
Certificates (13 to 36 credits)
Diplomas (37 credits or more)
• Each qualification has a level of difficulty from Entry to
Level 8
•
•
•
Level 2 is equivalent to GCSE
Level 3 is equivalent to A-level
Level 4 is equivalent to first year of a university degree
QCF Qualifications What is a Unit?
CREDIT VALUE: Arrived at by estimating
the learning time and dividing by ten.
Process focuses on the learning
outcomes and assessment criteria not
the mode of delivery
TITLE: Should be clear ,
unambiguous and reflect
achievement specified in
learning outcomes and
assessment criteria
Title:
Unit 1 An Introduction to Counselling
Level:
2
Credit 3 credits
value
Learning outcomes
The learner will:
1. Recognise the difference between
Counselling and Counselling Skills or
other helping activities
2. Studied BACP's Ethical Framework for
Good Practice in Counselling and
Psychotherapy (2010), and its
implications for counsellors' actions
3. Know the personal qualities needed for
the ethical use of counselling skills
LEARNING OUTCOMES: When identifying ask the
question ‘what do learners need to know,
understand or be able to do as a result of this
learning experience?’. The answer should take
the form of a series of broad statements that
describe the result of the learning process.
LEVEL: Indicates relative
demand, complexity and
depth of learning and degree
of learner autonomy
Assessment Criteria
The learner can:
1.1 Compare the difference between counselling and
counselling skills/other counselling activities
ASSESSMENT CRITERIA: Should relate
to a specific learning outcome: at least
one criterion to each outcome. They
2.1 Demonstrate knowledge of BACP's 'Ethical Framework for Good
should
be observable, measurable and
Practice in Counselling and Psychotherapy' (2010)
indicate the standard expected when
the learner is assessed.
3.1 Describe the personal qualities required for the ethical use of
counselling skills
Key features of a Unit
• Units are the building blocks of the QCF – they provide the
basis for constructing qualifications and awarding credit
• A unit is defined as a coherent and explicit set of learning
outcomes and related assessment criteria, with a title, credit
value and level
• Each unit must be capable of contributing towards at least
one qualification
• Unit achievement will be recognised through the provision of
a credit record if the full qualification is not achieved
• Units can be used in more than one qualification (spiky
profiles)
Learning Outcomes
• Learning outcomes address the question ‘What do learners
need to know, understand or be able to do as a result of this
learning experience?’
• Learning outcomes must articulate what a learner is expected
to achieve rather than the learning process or activities.
• Learning outcomes should form a coherent group of
statements that relate to each other and to the title of the
unit.
• All learning outcomes in a unit are of equal importance in
terms of achieving the unit and must be completed before the
credit can be awarded
• Assessment Criteria are the means by which a judgment is
made whether or not the learner has evidenced the learning
outcome
New Suite Developments
• No major change in subject content
• Comprehensive teacher guidance
• Specification (ie learning outcomes and assessment
criteria) separate from teacher guidance
• Structure to allow for professional recognition and entry
onto an AVR
• Guided learning hours from levels 2 to 4 provide the
minimum training requirements for BACP accreditation
• Manageable assessments
Timeline – Dependent on Ofqual Accreditation
• First examination/award of new qualifications
at all levels – June 2015
• AIM Awards are prepared to look at a Level 2
Skills exam from January 2015 provided there
is demand
• Introduction to Counselling will remain on
demand from September 2014
Level 2 Certificate
LEVEL 2
Unit No
Units
Credits/GLH
9 Credits
45 GLH
J/506/3040
Skills acquisition and
practice
Mandatory
Full
Qualification
Assessment
Externally-assessed
exam + internallyassessed role-play
Counselling: Working
with Grief and Loss
Internally-assessed
journal
D/506/3030
Certificate
in
Counselling
Skills
K/506/3032
M/506/3033
Counselling:
Communicating with
Children and Young
People
Counselling: Working
With Trauma
Counselling: Skills For
the Workplace
J/506/3037
Options – choose 1
from 4
Each:
6 Credits
30 GLH
15 Credits
75 GLH
150 NLH
Internally-assessed
journal
Internally-assessed
journal
Internally-assessed
journal
Regulation update
Ensuring that AIM Awards counselling qualifications remain
fit for purpose in a changing professional climate….
Students ask…..
If I do this course, will I be…..
A “qualified” counsellor?
A “recognised” counsellor?
An “accredited” counsellor?
….and will I be able to get a job/ start a private practice?
Much depends on how the profession is regulated both now
and in the future
Voluntary Regulation
A profession which is voluntarily regulated usually
• Maintains a register of individual practitioners
• Sets educational standards (currently at Level 4) and an
independent accreditation system
• Requires professional competence among its registrants through a
programme of continuing professional development
• Provides codes of conduct, ethics and practice
• Has in place a complaints mechanism for members of the public
• Has in place a fitness to practise procedure that is accessible to
the public
• Requires registrants to have adequate professional indemnity
insurance.
Voluntary Regulation
 For a profession which is voluntarily regulated there is
–
No Legal Protection of Title
–
No legal requirement for a single definitive register of practitioners
–
No legal underpinning of disciplinary procedures and sanctions
–
No requirement for external appointment of members of the governing
council
 There are several organisations in the counselling and
psychotherapy field including:

the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP)
British Association for Behavioural & Cognitive Psychotherapies (BABCP)
National Counselling Society (NCS)
Voluntary Regulation
A regulator is there to protect the general public
A professional association exists to support its members.
There is a risk of a conflict of interest if an organisation tries to perform both roles.
The current Government asked an organisation now known as the Professional
Standards Authority for Health and Social Care (PSA) to develop a quality
assurance scheme to approve voluntary registers in the health and social care
fields.
There are a number of organisations that have already succeeded in having their
registers approved by the PSA, these include :
British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP)
National Counselling Society (NCS)
United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP)
Voluntary Regulation
Although not a legal requirement….
 Being registered will be a useful way for practitioners
to demonstrate to employers and the public their
commitment to providing good quality care.
 The approved registers will be promoted by the
Department of Health, PSA and the organisations
holding the registers as the first place to look for
practitioners.
 Being on an approved register is a requirement for
some employment opportunities, for example with the
NHS and some private sector employers.
Assessing Level 2
Statement
1.To know
2. To Understand
3. To be Competent
QCF Level 2
QCF Level 3
AIM Awards
 Any questions?