Continuing Professional Development for Faith Leaders and Workers

Accreditation

Pilot of Continuing Professional Development (CPD) for Faith leaders and workers

The overall aim of the course is to develop the communication, negotiation, representation and others skills of faith leaders and workers so that they can operate more effectively within their own communities.

The pilot will test out the content required for the programme and through feedback and consultation inform the development of new nationally accredited qualifications at appropriate levels.

It has been agreed that participants in the pilot will have their learning recognised through units from existing Level 1 qualifications on the National Qualifications Framework (NQF), which will form the basis for further development.

The Pilot

Three units from the National Open College Network (NOCN) Level 1 Award for Progression have been selected as most appropriate ‘best fit’ at this stage to support the initial content of the programme:

	Developing Group and Teamwork Skills
	Understanding Rights and Responsibilities of Citizenship
	Understanding Diversity within Society

Each unit has a credit value of 3 i.e. 30hrs. Together the three units make up a NOCN Level 1 Award for Progression. Each unit is made up of a coherent set of Learning Outcomes and associated Assessment Criteria.

	All Learning Outcomes in each unit must be achieved successfully, to the specified Assessment Criteria, for the participant to be awarded the unit.
	Evidence of achievement for each Learning Outcome must be recorded for each of the participants by the trainer.
	Tasks can address one Learning Outcome or more Learning Outcomes – through an assignment or project.
	On successful completion of all three units participants will receive the full NOCN Level 1 Award for Progression qualification.
	Learners can also receive unit certification for each unit i.e. if they complete one or two of the units.

It has been agreed that the programme should be delivered through themed sessions to ensure that the learning is relevant and pertinent to faith leaders and workers rather than deliver the units as they stand. The themed sessions that have been identified to date are:

	Legislative Context
	Leadership
	Diversity and Faith
	The Voluntary and Community Sector
	Community Development
	Working with Children and Young People
	Developing Safeguarding and Child Protection Policies
	Organisational Finance

Session plans for each of the themes have been developed and include, as appropriate, reference to websites and other resources. These themes have been identified as the potential content of the course. They need to be used to generate assessment evidence for successful achievement of the three units.

The two themes of Legislative Context and Faith and Diversity map most readily to two of the NOCN units and must be delivered within the course i.e.

Legislative Context

NOCN unit - Understanding Rights and Responsibilities of Citizenship

Five session plans have been developed for this theme:

Three from the Legislative Context theme:

	Human Rights
	The Law
	Specific laws that Impact on the VCS

(These sessions address Learning Outcomes 1 and 2)

And two from the Community development theme:

	Engagement
	Support and Protection

(These sessions address Learning Outcomes 3 and 4)

Faith and Diversity

NOCN unit - Understanding Diversity within Society

One session plan has been developed for this theme:

Diversity and Faith

(This session maps against Learning Outcomes 1 and 2. Other sessions will need to be developed to address Learning Outcomes 3 and 4 or other themes will need to include opportunities for assessment of these Learning Outcomes)

It is intended that these and other themes should be used to generate assessment evidence for the third unit - Developing Group and Teamwork Skills

What is important is that all Learning Outcomes and Assessment Criteria contained within the units are covered through the course in order that the participants can receive accreditation.

Trainers can use their own materials for the themes - as long as all Learning Outcomes and Assessment Criteria contained within the units are covered through the course.