Testimonials
THE DELIVERY TEAM: OUR TRAINING QUALITY STANDARD CONSULTANTS
• Trish Fraser MA Chartered MCIPD: Trish is Managing Director of QSE and maintains an overview of all QSE's TQS support
• Chris Moore MA (TQS Project Manager and Principal TQS Consultant): Chris coordinates activities as well as providing consultancy support. Chris has a background in Further Education and has been managing a successful consultancy practice since the early 1990s. He was an Action for Business Colleges Assessor, leading and supporting assessments for over three years. As well as projects in the education sector, he works regionally, nationally and internationally with a wide range of public and private sector organisations.
• Margaret Adams MA Chartered FCIPD (Principal TQS Consultant): Margaret has a background in Further Education lecturing, staff development and quality development. Her consultancy has been working to support the sector since 1991. During that time she has helped TECs and, more recently, LSCs to develop their providers' capability to fulfil their contracts and to become more business-focused. She developed the assessment framework for the Action for Business Colleges Standard. She writes on employer engagement themes for a number of specialist journals serving the sector.
• Dr Rod Haveland-Smith (Principal TQS Consultant): Rod is a very experienced former senior manager in FE, and has been providing education consultancy services for a number of years, including recent work with a range of training providers, LSCs, Ofsted and the LSN. A former Action for Business Colleges Assessor, he has been working with the project team since its inception.
See below for comments from those using our services (click on the title for a drop-down comment from one of our customers).
"The presentation by Rod and Chris was concise, well articulated and delegates left with a very good knowledge of TQS. The session was interactive and presented with a variety of techniques. We will be using QSE's TQS Support again.
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Dr Tim Strickland, Chief Executive Officer - FE SussexClose [x]"QSE quickly gained an understanding of our College and its priorities. Using a position statement produced by the Business Development Team, they produced a list of various employer facing personnel in the College they wanted to meet over the 2 days, together with a selection of employers and training providers within our consortium. Staff were impressed equally by the presentations delivered and the techniques used to gain a full picture of the college. They provided a comprehensive report and presentation to the Senior Management Team. Due to their vast experiences in working with FE Providers, they were able to make informed suggestions as to improvement measures we could implement and highlighted areas of good practice observed elsewhere.
Following the report and recommendations, the College drew up an action plan distributed to the Senior Management Team and the TQS Management Committee and are actively working through this to ensure we meet the demanding indicators required by the TQS.
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Ms Alison King, Business Development Manager - Canterbury CollegeClose [x]"Eastleigh College had prepared a draft application for Part A of the Training Quality Standard and had just started putting together Part B for Building Services. We were due to submit both within a month and needed a critical friend to guide us. The initial response from QSE was swift, focused and clear. They listened to what we wanted and structured their support around this. Two consultants came into the college. They were flexible in terms of how long they would spend with us and how they carried out the visit. Feedback was thorough. They had prepared well. The focus was clearly on what we needed to rethink, rewrite or reconfigure. Guidance was constructive enabling us to proceed with confidence. We felt motivated by the feedback and college staff agreed that the consultation was a good use of our time. Part A was achieved following the consultation. Part B will be resubmitted. "
Jean Roberts, Director of Teaching & Learning - Eastleigh CollegeClose [x]"As a College we know the impact and importance of us achieving the Training Quality Standard, but our biggest problem was where we were starting from, so our Objective was to assess our current level of employer responsiveness and levels of service, and identify areas for improvement in advance of our application for assessment.
We agreed with QSE our requirements and they came in to carryout a Health Check for us. This highlighted what we did well, but more importantly what did not work and what systems and processes we needed to implement to help us improve our business, because for us it is not only about meeting the standard, it is about business improvement.
The support has not stopped there. The advice continues to ensure that what we are doing is addressing the problems identified. They have really given us our areas of focus."
Tim Scott, Director of Business Development - Guildford CollegeClose [x]"My impression from yesterday was that everyone went away more than happy with the content of the day and felt that they had learned useful tips. I was concerned that the day should be more than an explanation of TQS and the scoring system, and that the event should provide meaningful information on how to make a successful application, what the assessors would be looking for, and an activity for action planning for the way forward. I believe that your team successfully achieved this outcome, hence the participants went away happy. Well done all."
Ms Val Nicks - FE Sussex/ The Windsor GroupClose [x]"Just the right amount of delivery / activity balance. Good Excercises and a good blend of presenters' styles"
Workshop DelegateClose [x]"I thought it was a really useful session and as always came away with a number of really good ideas.... as always Rod and yourself were very helpful."
Workshop DelegateClose [x]
