Changes in Education...
New Awarding Body for Signmaking NVQ

At the end of May 2008 the Association were advised that Cogent, the Sector Skills Council for our industry, had entered negotiations with PAA\VQ-SET to sell the awarding rights for the qualifications owned by SASL.

SASL, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Cogent, held the awarding rights for the Signmaking NVQ and a raft of other vocational qualifications for the polymer industry. The Cogent board felt that the future development of the product range and the level of service needed to facilitate this required the involvement of a larger awarding body.

Commenting on the proposed sale Michael Cross of Cogent said, ‘We see this as a positive and beneficial move that will supplement the work of the new National Skills Academy for Process Industries. We firmly believe we have now developed the best partnership and platform to support the up-skilling drive across the process industries.’

The sale was completed on 4th July and Lichfield based PAA\VQ-SET, who also offer qualifications to the man-made fibre, paper, building products, petro-chemical, chemical, pharmaceutical and meteorology sectors are now responsible for the administration of the Polymer & Signmaking NVQ’s.

PAA\VQ-SET is working with colleges and centres delivering the Signmaking NVQ to ensure a smooth transfer process & as reported elsewhere, Peter Grice was a guest speaker at the Signmaking NVQ Conference which took place at Walsall College in June.

The next two years will be a busy time on the education front, with the transfer of existing qualifications to the Qualifications and Credit Framework (QCF) and review of National Occupational Standards (NOS) which is planned for 2009. The BSGA will be working closely with Cogent to ensure that the interests of signmakers are represented and the new qualifications structure meets the needs of our industry.