Assuring quality of our service delivery

The HIE quality assurance programme has been developed to provide consistency of advice across the HIE Network area.

The programme was developed around four core Small Firms Enterprise Development Initiative (SFEDI) units of competence across seven areas of knowledge and understanding including:

• finance and accounting
• ICT
• people
• innovation and technology
• marketing and sales
• strategic overview and
• operations and processes.

The programme benchmarks a level of competence in the delivery of advice and information against national and European standards. 200 LEC staff and 85 advisers have been successfully assessed against these and have received certificates showing their achievement against specific units.

The Network developed this programme after taking account of the large area we cover, the dispersed nature of local enterprise staff and the scattered framework of advisers across the area.

We concentrated on skills testing, rather than knowledge input, e.g. certificates - with an annual continuous professional development (CPD) programme to ensure advisers continue to develop across a wide range of areas.

From August 2005, certificates are issued with HIE and City and Guilds (C&G) logos. C&G accepted our programme in its entirety and participants are awarded with a C&G Profile of Achievement which lists all the units the participant has been successfully assessed against. New units are developed and included in the portfolio once they have been piloted and accredited by C&G. This is the first time C&G have accepted such a syllabus and is a measure of the robustness of the programme.

The process is in four parts and takes about three months to complete. They are:

1. 1) Awareness session and issue of pre-assessment checklist (PAC) – two weeks. The participant undertakes an audit of their skills and job relevance against 45 questions which takes about three hours to complete.
2. Allocation of assessor and one to one session to discuss PAC.
3. Three observations with clients – minimum six weeks.
4. External verification of process and content by C&G - approx four weeks.

After each observation, the assessor and the participant discuss the meeting and feedback is given. If any training need is identified this should be carried out before the next session as this gives the participant the opportunity to demonstrate that he/she has understood and can apply the knowledge gained.

Enterprise Estonia has recently requested that they be allowed to adopt our programme for their advisers and business consultants and, with assistance from the HIE network, plan to implement by end 2006.

The certificate received is transportable and is recognised across the UK as a national basic standard of competence for staff and advisers working in business support. It is a minimum standard but increasingly advisers and LEC staff are widening their options by being assessed against additional units such as social enterprise, environmental and quality.

Link to Small Firms Enterprise Development Initiative (SFEDI)