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Standards FAQs
How can I use Standards?
Individuals, organisations and training providers can use Standards in a number of ways to improve performance. They are a useful tool for carrying out a wide range of activity.
Individuals can use Standards:
- As a checklist for measuring their own performance
- To identify professional development needs within their role and to help career progression
- To accumulate evidence that may lead to a nationally-recognised qualification (but only where a N/SVQ exists and where agreed to by the Body)
HR staff and line managers can use Standards to:
- Design fair and transparent recruitment and selection procedures
- Design job descriptions, advertisements and interview questions
- Design induction programmes and information packs
- Carry out appraisals
- Identify individual or team learning needs
Training providers can use Standards to:
- Make training programmes more relevant to people’s needs
- Provide clear goals for structured learning
- Design tailored training packages and assess relevance and effectiveness courses
- Define the learning outcomes
Other people within a third sector organisation can use the Standards to:
- Help with strategic planning
- Develop resources that are benchmarked to nationally recognised best practice
- Contribute evidence to the organisation’s quality systems
Where do I start?
To get started, you need to identify which standards are relevant to your organisation and for individuals within your organisation.
For example, a charity that supports people with mental illness through advocacy, befriendment, counselling, information and advice might find the following Standards useful: Mental Health, Management of Volunteers, Fundraising, Special Needs Housing Advice, Guidance and Advocacy, and Counselling.
The same organisation might also find generic Standards for administration, IT and training and development useful.
Copies of all standards are available from this website and from www.ukstandards.org.
Once you have copies of the relevant standards, you need to work with staff and volunteers within your organisation to identify which standards contain units describing their jobs.
You may need to look in different units to cover all aspects of a role: for example, someone responsible for managing a team of volunteer will find much of what they do in the National Occupational Standards for Management of Volunteers, but may also use some of the units within the National Occupational Standards for Mental Health and Counselling.
Are Standards the same as NVQs/SVQs?
No, they are by no means the same as any qualification.
The performance criteria (the ‘what you need to do’ section) of Standards form the basis of an N/SVQ but Standards have many other uses, some of which are outlined above.
If someone has been using Standards as tool for measuring their own performance, can provide evidence of this, and later decides to enrol in an N/SVQ for that particular occupation/role, they could speak to the Awarding Body about receiving Accreditation of Prior Learning.
Are the Standards compulsory?
No, Standards are recommended good practice only.
How are Standards developed?
In the third sector, we use a ‘bottom-up’ approach to develop Standards.
This means that hundreds of managers of volunteers, fundraisers and trustees have contributed to the development of all three suites of Standards.
Skills - Third Sector acts as a project manager and is responsible for coordinating the work but the standards themselves are written by individuals in these roles, with consultants acting as ‘wordsmiths’.