Mistakes Businesses Make When Becoming a Training Centre
As a result of the pandemic, many businesses have had to diversify their offering. This included turning organisations into training centres. Setting up your own training centre isn’t for the fainthearted and we know all about that here at Brooks and Kirk as we have helped many organisations on that exact journey.
Over the past 20 years we have worked with lots of businesses at different stages of their training centre-set up journeys. During this time, we have found some common mistakes which are easy to avoid. Rather than you making these mistakes, we thought it would be useful if you learnt from us.
Make Sure You Have Policies
When you start working with awarding bodies, they will want to see that you have all the standard policies and procedures in place before you start working with them. By having this all organised in advance, they will know that you are serious about setting up your training centre.
A detailed set of policies means that overall risk is reduced within an organisation. All members of staff know exactly what is supposed to happen, how and when. The most common policies awarding bodies will want to see include health & safety, equality & diversity, complaints and safeguarding. Whilst this may feel time-consuming, it is important to get these policies and procedures correct from the outset to save you any issues further on down the line.
Hire Trained Staff
Your staff are your main asset when it comes to building your training centre. Not only do they need to be on the same page as you, they are also the ones who will be delivering courses when your training centre is all set up. This means that they must have a teaching and/or assessing qualification – these will be required by the awarding body themselves.
When it comes to the Assessor qualifications, at least one person in your centre should hold the Level 3 Certificate in Assessing Vocational Achievement (CAVA). This will give them all of the essential knowledge about the principles and practices of assessment.
The final piece to this puzzle is the Internal Quality Assurer. If you are starting a training centre, it is vital that you have an Assessor and an IQA. As the business owner you can be the IQA if you need to keep wages short in the beginning. But you can’t quality assure your own assessment decisions. So you will need an assessor outside of yourself on your team. For the role of the quality assurer, we would strongly recommend the Level 4 Certificate in Leading the Internal Quality Assurance of Assessment Processes and Practice.
Choosing The Right Awarding Body
Many business owners who are setting up their own training centre choose an awarding body simply because they have heard of them. This isn’t always the best process to take though! Choosing the right awarding body is one of the most important decisions you will have to make. So it’s worth doing your homework first!
There are lots of different awarding bodies out there. The one you decide to go with should be the right fit for both your business and your potential learners. Look into the initial costs you will have to fork out; how much they charge per registration; and of course, the range of qualifications that they offer. Awarding bodies often have different rules regarding qualifications and quality assurance so it is worth looking into this too.
Ask For Help!
Whilst we appreciate that this is easier said than done, setting up a training centre is a huge venture that you need to do correctly. We have been there, made the mistakes and learnt from them. By working together we can help save you the time and hassle of making the mistakes like many others before you.
At Brooks and Kirk we provide a consultation service where we provide you with the help and advice to get you moving forward with your training centre. As well as being in the same position as you (many years ago), we have worked with many businesses since then and helped them set up their thriving training centres. Get in touch today to see how we can help support you on your journey – call 01205 805155.