A European first in supported employment

Britain can now boast Europe’s first national occupational standards for staff working within supported employment model. The National Occupational Standards (NOS) for Supported Employment were developed by LSIS this year, and are now in place.

National Occupational Standards, or ‘NOS’, describe what a person needs to do, know and understand in order to carry out a particular job or task in a consistent way and to a nationally recognised level of competence. They cover the activities a person might undertake in the course of their occupation, and consider all the circumstances or contexts that a person is likely to encounter.

National Occupational Standards always include, as a minimum:
• A title and overview, which explains the content of the unit.
• Details of the knowledge, understanding and skills needed to carry out tasks within the job role/function.
• ‘Performance statements’ describing activities that would represent effective performance of tasks within a unit.

The revised NOS will help practitioners who provide personalised support for people with disabilities and/or disadvantages in order to help them to seek, access and retain employment. This may include job coaches, employment advisers, employment consultants and employment support officers. The Standards are written in a way that allows them to be used by practitioners from across the field of supported employment, as required by different roles. The NOS will help support the sector to achieve outstanding teaching and learning, LSIS’s number one priority for the sector.

You can find out more at the UK Standards website. In addition there are a number of guides to using the NOS including Standards for the lifelong learning sector: A User Guide (Lifelong Learning UK) and How to use National Occupational Standards to develop your workforce (SkillsActive) and Putting National Occupational Standards to Work: Legal advice sector toolkit Section B (Skills for Justice)