Thoughts from the CEO
29th June 2010
National Skills Academy for Social Care CEO,
Liz McSheehy
There’s little hope of referring to last week, without mentioning sport, so I’ve decided to face it head-on! As weeks go, you could remember it as one where England were knocked out of the World Cup, or you could instead recall it as a week of top-class competition; England won against Slovenia to get to the qualifying stages; Andy Murray successfully got through rounds three and four at Wimbledon and most significantly, the Skills Academy reflected the winning theme with a few first-of-a kind activities and winning of its own.
In fact, as all eyes were on the football and tennis, the Academy had 10 winning care workers from across the UK taking part in the Final of the first-ever WorldSkills UK Caring Competition Final in London.
The 10 candidates had already excelled at the regional heats of the competition and had been selected to compete at the final for the chance to win a Gold, Silver or Bronze medal and be recognised as an excellent care worker.
The standard was actually so high that we had 2 silver winners and a further 2 highly commended competitors. Just as important was the enthusiasm and energy on the day from the candidates, judges, tutors and employers; it was tangible, and the difference it made to their confidence and to their careers was clear to see. You can read more about it here
In the same week, our Endorsement Framework, which provides a means for Employers to identify quality, assured training and learning also had some winners. South Birmingham College became the first ever organisation to receive our Endorsement as a Skills Academy Recognised Provider closely followed by Baldwin Training Centre in East Sussex. As Recognised Providers, they’ve demonstrated their commitment to quality learning and training through existing quality marks that complement the Skills Academy Recognition and Excellence Awards.
The development of the Recognition and Excellence Awards themselves are ground-breaking in the social care sector as a means of giving employers the surety they have told us they need when buying training and learning.
Both the Caring Competition and the Endorsement Framework demonstrate the tangible benefits in modelling excellence in learning and training in social care and helping to collectively enable a transformation in the sector; I for one am looking forward to more examples of winners and excellent performance – and of course a win from our sports heroes too.