Endorsement / Approval
What is endorsement?
As Community Development work becomes recognised as a profession (or something akin to a profession), those entering it (and particularly those who want to make a career out of it) will want to obtain good, relevant and recognised training/qualifications. Similarly, employing bodies will want to be assured that those they employ are reasonably well able to undertake the work demanded of them and that the training they have completed has equipped them to do the job in question.
Thus the value of endorsement is that:
- it assures employers that the programme of tuition which the students have undergone is based on nationally recognised standards, combining theory and practice, and that the staff they recruit from endorsed courses will be competent practitioners;
- it gives courses credibility and helps participants secure jobs at appropriate rates of pay;
- it encourages prospective participants to sign up for the course;
- it assists education and training providers to improve their course and to defend it against dilution;
- it helps both staff and participants to feel that they and their work are validated.
ETS Wales, a body that is well-established as the endorsement body for youth and community worker training programmes in Wales, has developed these pilot arrangements for the endorsement of community development training as part of the CD workforce development project that is being led by Community Development Cymru in partnership with LLUK and ETS Wales, funded by the Welsh Assembly Government. These will be fully reviewed as part of the pilot arrangements. These webpages will be developing in the course of the pilot as more information becomes available.
