Information Services NTO Projects:

isNTO is undertaking a wide range of projects. Below is just a sample of the current projects underway, if you would like additional details of any of the projects simply email Alix Craven at alix@isnto1.freeserve.co.uk.

Skills Foresight 2002-2009
isNTO is currently carrying out it’s second Skills Foresight Project, this time looking at the skills needed up to 2009.  It is vitally important that this Project is informed by senior practitioners in the Sector, to ensure that the data and priorities are accurate. I therefore urge you to complete the questionnaire so that your views are counted. If you would like further information about the Project please contact Alix Craven.

2001 Skills Foresight: 2000 - 2007
This Project, which scans future skills needs across the Sector, is now complete. The Report has been sent to all subscribing members, together with the associated Toolkit which enables an organisation to carry out a skills foresight exercise within its own environment. We would welcome reports from organisations who have tested out the toolkit.

Skills for Knowledge Management
The work which we commissioned from TFPL to identify the skills associated with knowledge management, is now complete. The report has been sent to subscribing members. The associated toolkit is in the prototype form, within the report, and further work is proceeding to finalise it. We would welcome comments on the prototype from members. Copies of the report are available from TFPL Ltd at a cost of £50, please call 020 7251 5522.

National Occupational Standards for Information/Knowledge Management
Building on the above Project we will be exploring the feasibility of creating NOS in this area. If this proves positive, work on the NOS themselves will follow.

Education & Training Audit
We will shortly be commencing data collection, from which we hope to build up an overall picture of education & training provision throughout the Sector. Put alongside the other components of the State of the Sector Project, this will enable us to guide providers and to facilitate new provision where it is indicated as needed.

Skills Benchmarking
This is another part of the State of the Sector Project. The aim is to identify good practice in human resource management in organisations in the Sector, and to create a system by which any organisation may assess its policies and practices against these benchmarks. We appointed 4Most Plus Ltd to carry out this work. This team also completed our Skills Foresight work, which every subscribing member has received. The report and associated toolkit has been distributed to subscribing members. Copies can be obtained from isNTO.

People Skills Scoreboard
We have conducted a pilot study under this DFES/DTI sponsored scheme. This seeks to identify levels and indicators of investment in workforce development. The final report for this study is available from isNTO.

Workforce Development Plan
This work must be completed by March 2002, to meet a DFES deadline. The components of the State of the Sector work will all feed material into this overall picture. The Plan will be a strategic overview of development needs across the workforce, based on the collected views of employers.

Unified Qualifications Structure
We see a need to reconcile the Sector's professional qualifications with the spreading vocational qualifications, aiming to create a single career ladder with parity of esteem for all qualifications on it. We will map and resolve equivalences and progression routes amongst all qualifications active in our Sector.

Broadening the Use of National Occupational Standards (NOS)
We are anxious to identify and promote uses for NOS beyond simply being the basis for N/SVQs. These may be in training programmes, individual performance review systems, job design, careers information and others. We are initially seeking a range of pilot organisations across the Sector to explore these uses and test their feasibility in practice. From this we will produce and market a manual of guidance. For more details click here

Information Services Skills Passport
The concept here is of creating a record of achievement for individual employees. On this would be recorded all qualifications, and part-qualifications, recognised by all employers in the Sector. Universal employer recognition of the concept and its working systems is crucial to the success of this Project. We are seeking initial data input from pilot organisations across the Sector as the starting point for this work.

Revised Frameworks for Modern Apprenticeships, inc. Technical Certificates
We are working on the revised Frameworks jointly with CHNTO and METIER. The City & Guilds 7371 Progression Award in Library and Information Services has now been approved as the Technical Certificate within this framework. A separate project has been approved to create a Technical Certificate for the taught elements of the new Modern Apprenticeships. Prospective centres, please phone City & Guilds (020 7294 2468) and ask for forms for Scheme and Centre Approval. The completed forms are to be returned to City & Guilds in April 2002.

Occupational Standards and Qualification for Microfilming and Digitisation
There appears to be a need for standards and a qualification for microfilming and digitisation for conservation. We will test the demand and feasibility as a first stage and, assuming this proves positive, proceed to create both standards and qualification. This work will be done in consultation with the Cultural Heritage NTO, who also have an interest in conservation work.

Review of Functional & Occupational Maps
The functional and occupational maps are a guide to who does what in our Sector, as a basis for the National Occupational Standards. They were last reviewed and up-dated in 1997, and will have changed significantly since then. We are currently testing the demaind, before we embark on revision of the NOS.

Triennial Revision of the National Occupational Standards
This revision should follow immediately upon completion of the Mapping review above. This must be a fundamental, thorough and very consultative process which will take more than twelve months to complete. It will include key/core skills signposting and a review of the Assessment Strategy relating to the Sector's N/SVQs.

Regional Information Services Skills Panels
We have already established National Panels for Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. We are committed to setting up similar Panels for each of the English regions. Some progress has been made towards this, but a great deal remains to be done and this network needs to be complete as a matter of some urgency.

Fostering a Skilled and Learning Workforce
This is a Project to encourage, deliver and record continuous individual development of information workers. It will involve tools for personal skills analysis and personal development recording, and work to foster a climate supportive of workplace learning. This Project has been funded initially for Wales by the National Assembly, and we hope to find opportunities to extend it to other parts of the UK.