6.4 National Occupational Standards
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National Occupational Standards
Due to the almost revolutionary changes that have occurred in the Photo Imaging sector over that last few years, the need for up-to-date standards that reflect current practice has never been greater. It is essential that new entrants to the industry develop skills in both old and new methods and practices, while established businesses must constantly up-skill their existing workforce in order to keep up with emerging technologies. National Occupational Standards are an invaluable reference tool to support this.
Throughout 2004 and 2005 Skillset has been developing a Sector Qualification Strategy through extensive research and consultation activities across the whole of the UK. This is in order to determine what is needed in terms of skills development for the sector. National Occupational Standards will play a key part in informing and shaping this work.
The existing Photo Imaging Standards were developed by the Photo Imaging National Training Organisation (NTO) in September 2002 and were inherited by Skillset in January 2004 when it took over the work of the NTO. Skillset's footprint in this sector is significantly wider than that of the previous NTO, so a full review is now needed - in particular to describe high level digital management in more detail, contain more detail on archive storage and retrieval methods, and better reflect the particular needs of Photo Retail and Picture Libraries.
At present the Standards are significantly different in format from the rest of Skillset's suite of Standards. It is intended that in future, units will be presented consistently in Skillset's single element unit format and will be grouped according to the relevant sub-sector of the industry. This will be the same format that was adopted when developing the Interactive Media Standards.
The new format contains an additional section entitled Awareness; this reflects the greater emphasis placed on multi-tasking and the need for workers to understand the wider context of their place within the production process. The need for this is supported by the preliminary review of the Photo Imaging Standards carried out for Skillset in August 2005, which highlighted the need to focus on general awareness of the sector as well as specific knowledge and understanding, as it was felt that people entering the industry must have peripheral knowledge relating to organisational, legal and personal development.
It is hoped that the updated National Occupational Standards will prove invaluable to the industry in articulating and informing their learning needs, and will provide a valuable reference tool and check list to support the structuring of learning for workforce development.
National Occupational Standards
Due to the almost revolutionary changes that have occurred in the Photo Imaging sector over that last few years, the need for up-to-date standards that reflect current practice has never been greater. It is essential that new entrants to the industry develop skills in both old and new methods and practices, while established businesses must constantly up-skill their existing workforce in order to keep up with emerging technologies. National Occupational Standards are an invaluable reference tool to support this.
Throughout 2004 and 2005 Skillset has been developing a Sector Qualification Strategy through extensive research and consultation activities across the whole of the UK. This is in order to determine what is needed in terms of skills development for the sector. National Occupational Standards will play a key part in informing and shaping this work.
The existing Photo Imaging Standards were developed by the Photo Imaging National Training Organisation (NTO) in September 2002 and were inherited by Skillset in January 2004 when it took over the work of the NTO. Skillset's footprint in this sector is significantly wider than that of the previous NTO, so a full review is now needed - in particular to describe high level digital management in more detail, contain more detail on archive storage and retrieval methods, and better reflect the particular needs of Photo Retail and Picture Libraries.
At present the Standards are significantly different in format from the rest of Skillset's suite of Standards. It is intended that in future, units will be presented consistently in Skillset's single element unit format and will be grouped according to the relevant sub-sector of the industry. This will be the same format that was adopted when developing the Interactive Media Standards.
The new format contains an additional section entitled Awareness; this reflects the greater emphasis placed on multi-tasking and the need for workers to understand the wider context of their place within the production process. The need for this is supported by the preliminary review of the Photo Imaging Standards carried out for Skillset in August 2005, which highlighted the need to focus on general awareness of the sector as well as specific knowledge and understanding, as it was felt that people entering the industry must have peripheral knowledge relating to organisational, legal and personal development.
It is hoped that the updated National Occupational Standards will prove invaluable to the industry in articulating and informing their learning needs, and will provide a valuable reference tool and check list to support the structuring of learning for workforce development.
