The e-KSF "Credit Bank" trialled in NHS Wales

The European Qualifications Framework was adopted by the EU in April 2008, as a tool for allowing the translation of qualifications across all EU countries. NHS Wales has been at the forefront of implementing the new qualifications framework – actually a Credit and Qualifications Framework, which in Wales is called the CQFW. (The English version is the Qualifications Credit Framework (QCF)). In Wales, NHS learners can accrue valuable educational Credit for undertaking “bite-sized” pieces of accredited learning, as small as 10 notational learning hours, provided that they pass an assessment. Increasingly, this learning and credit accumulation is happening at the workplace rather than at Higher/Further education establishments.

For more about the CQFW, please see www.cqfw.net.

In partnership with the National Leadership and Innovations Agency for Healthcare in Wales (NLIAH) we’ve enhanced the e-KSF to be a tool for the NHS to manage Credit. This functionality is currently being trialled, with a view to full roll-out. In summary, this new e-KSF “Credit Bank” functionality will allow:

• Organisations to identify which of their learning activities carry Credit.
• Learners to view these activities and add them to their PDP.
• Learners to record the accrual of credit.
• Reviewers to approve the credit accrual and confirm that the credit should be added to the individuals’ credit bank.
• Administrators to view the total credit accrued, by educational level, across the organisation.

We think that Credit will become an increasingly powerful tool to allow the robust collection of evidence and high quality assessment of competence, for the KSF as well as Continuing Professional Development. It also provides significant benefits for the efficient transfer of learning as individuals move between organisations, and is proving to be a great way of encouraging learners to undertake high quality education and development.

For more information about this pilot project in Wales, or to find out more about how Credit will change your organisation’s learning provision, please contact tim@e-ksf.org.