2. EMPLOYER / EDUCATION LINKAGE

2.2 Educational Curricula

Developing Employer Learning Networks

This project was funded by a DfEE small business fund. The overall objective of this particular fund was to help SMEs group together to purchase and share training and therefore receive the same economies and benefits that a larger organisation would enjoy.

Our main partner was the Confederation of Group Training Associations, which represents the interests of GTAs (not-for-profit training providers). The project has helped develop these providers to deliver the IT Systems Support Technician and increase the numbers of Modern Apprentices in the IT services sector. This involved training and development of tutors in the GTAs to deliver the qualification and to conduct a technical survey of SMEs. The technical survey included an audit of the IT systems and the training needs of the organisations to support their hardware and software. The IT Systems Support Technician course was offered to these organisations so that one of their staff could acquire the skills necessary to act as an in-house IT paramedic.

The outcomes of this project were disseminated at the "e-skills for the UK Conference" organised by National Training Resources Limited and supported by e-skills NTO (Hinckley, Leicestershire, on 8 May 2001).

Please visit the ITSST section at www.e-skillsnto.org.uk/itss for further information, including a list of colleges and training providers currently offering the qualification and an online demo of the ITSST CD-ROM.

The 10 GTAs, which were involved in this project and now offer training towards the ITSST qualification, are:
National Training Resources ltd, Aylesbury Training Group, Camp Lane Development, Kirkdale Training, Leeds Training Trust, Mercia Training Ltd, North West Training Council, Pendle Training, Performance Through People, Southern Industries GTA, The Aspire Centre, Training 2000.
Other partners: DfEE, 200 x SMEs.

Contact : Maxine Mayer on or

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