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Welcome to the SR&A July 2010 Newsletter! This issue contains an invitation that we hope will be of interest to Chartered Psychologists about the licensing of training in the use of our Quintax Personality Questionnaire. We also have a great offer on Level A and B training for the rest of the year for all our readers - see below for details. There is an article on Re-affirmation of Level A and B Competence for people who have been trained at Level A and/or B but for one reason or another have never received BPS Certification. Finally, there is news about our Online 360 Systems - both bespoke and generic versions.
If you think the Newsletter may be useful to a colleague, then why not use the 'forward email' link at the foot of the Newsletter to send a copy to their email address. They will only become subscribed to our list if they then choose to click the 'Join Our Mailing List' button on the left!
If you don't want to receive our Newsletter you can unsubscribe at the foot of this page. We limit ourselves in each one to around 5 or 6 main news items, and we don't send them out very often! We try to make the content useful to our clients and among the other articles there are some attractive offers for you to consider in each issue.
Finally you can now get access to previous Newsletters by clicking the 'Newsletter Archive' option in the green 'Quick Links' box to the left of this introduction. If you check them out you will find a number of useful downloadable resources, from Quintax Norm and Type Tables to Learning Log materials for free use, and much more besides. You will also find helpful advice and some illustrative case studies on how to use the Quintax Leadership Styles Report. |
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Licensed Quintax Training: An Invitation |
| | Background
Friends and associates of those of us here at SR&A know the pleasure and pride we've taken over the years in the development and validation of the Quintax Personality Questionnaire. Naturally, we also think that this is more than just the authors' chauvinism in favour of a measure we have developed! Some years ago Quintax received an excellent BPS review, and we have done much validation research and product development since to build further value into the measure making it even more effective and predictive as a work based personality instrument.
Quintax has reached maturity with an impressive list of users. These range from individual consultants in career coaching, selection and elsewhere, through private sector companies in every area of the economy and also in the public sector. Here it has found use among major authorites such as the Ministry of Defence, the Audit Commission, the IPCC, and more, as well as an increasingly large group of local authorities and PCTs.
Quintax was written with the intention of providing high quality, insightful feedback materials for both assessor and assessee. As a result one of the more satisfying aspects of the development has been the evidence we have found of the personal impact that a tool of this sort can have on respondents. With increasing numbers of users, we as developers can see this impact becoming more widespread.
An opportunity for involvement
In the past we have ourselves performed all of the training of people who want to become users of the questionnaire. However, as we want to see the instrument and its use more fully disseminated we would like to invite others who are interested in Quintax to help to promote this process further across the UK and beyond.
If you are a Chartered Psychologist interested in offering Quintax training (and potentially Level B assessment through the BPS) why not contact us? Our desire is to create a collegiate interest in Quintax among a community of interested professionals across the UK. We are looking for those who may be interested in finding out more about the measure, and in furthering its development and use. In return for your support and participation, we can offer a variety of practical benefits to support you in your training effort and more widely through your business involvement.
If you feel some enthusiasm and engagement with this idea, and would like to work with a like-minded team, why not contact Stuart Robertson on 0161 877 3277 or via email - to discuss the options. You can also make contact through Stuart's LinkedIn page. We would like to meet you! |
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Level A and B Training Offer | Cutting the Cost of Supply
As a long term supplier of Level A and B training to both the public and private sectors we have, like many other companies, become aware of the impact of the economic situation on our customers. Budgets have been cut in many areas. In this atmosphere orders for training programmes and places easily become casualties due to the increasing austerity necessary in corporate life. However, it is often at such times that companies need most to invest in their staff development and training.
To help our customers maintain their activity levels we have decided to introduce an across the board cut of 20% in our list prices for all public course places between now and the end of 2010. Subject to demand you may also be able to find some fantastic last minute offers - just watch our google ads on the right of your browser near to the dates of our courses! Click here for our course dates, and don't foget that you are entitled to 20% off if you book on any of the courses scheduled between now and the end of 2010.
Visit us for more details of our courses and call us on 0161 877 3277 or email us to make a booking or to discuss any queries you may have. |
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Done a Level A/B course but never got the BPS Certificate? The system is changing - read on! |
| | Background
As we pointed out in a previous Newsletter, the British Psychological Society will soon be changing its approach to Level A and B certification. Instead of the current system, in which successful delegates are certificated effectively 'for life' with no need for periodic re-assessment, the BPS will be introducing a new system for recording and certificating the competence of delegates.
With the Level A and B standards of competence having all been re-written, the changes include the removal of some of the emphasis on calculation and the modernisation of the content to deal with new approaches in test use and development. The exercise of re-writing has also enabled the standards to be brought more into line with emerging European approaches. Apart from this, in future delegate qualifications will be based upon a competency profile. This will be recorded by the BPS on a publicly accessible database and in order to maintain the validity of their qualifications delegates will have to join and maintain their membership of the Register of Competence in Psychological Testing. An implication of maintaining a profile of competence on the new system will be a periodic need (every six years) to demonstrate - in some form - continuing competence in testing.
Important Implications for Past Delegates
The Society has indicated that it has a plan to enable those who already have Level A and/or B to be "grandparented" into the new system. However, if you are already qualified you can avoid the costs and time of this process by joining or by maintaining your membership of the Register of Competence in Psychological Testing. If you are already on the Register when these changes are implemented, you will be transferred directly into the new framework with no grandparenting application required. It makes sense therefore to take this step early so as not to be left outside the new system when it starts up!
Not been Certificated by the BPS?
There are a number of past delegates who have been through Level A and/or Level B training who for one reason or another never got certificated by the BPS. They include people who simply were not affirmed competent, or not told about the certificates while training, those who received affirmations but missed sending them to the BPS, those who forgot to do that post-course exercise in time, etc.
It is now possible for such delegates to meet with a Verified Assessor (the BPS holds a list) who can discuss the delegate's position individually and conduct an assessment for affirmation or re-affirmation at Level A and/or at Level B. Psychologists at SR&A - including Stuart Robertson - have helped to suggest this scheme and are fully participating in it. So if you want to receive that long delayed BPS Certificate to demonstrate national recognition for your skills, call us today for information or email Stuart. We can help!
The Psychological Test Centre (PTC) has many of the details of the new scheme - it is a part of the BPS - click here to visit its website for more information. |
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Online 360 Systems from SR&A |
| SR&A Experience
Along with other Chartered Psychologists we have gained much experience in 360 degree assessment. We first got involved with 360 in the early nineties, devising and running a paper based 360 system for Selfridges in Oxford Street. Since then we have devised and implemented a wide range of different systems - mostly bespoke - based upon client competency frameworks for organisations as varied as Atos Origin, Diageo, the Audit Commission, and a range of local authorities. Some case studies relating to our bespoke systems are illustrated on our website - click here for more information.
During this period we also designed a generic model of management competency which has given rise to our popular 'Management 360 System and Report'. This is liked by many smaller organisations working without a purpose built competency framework. It can also be useful for small scale 360 projects. In these cases it can often be mapped readily onto client based competency frameworks - where they exist - when it is not cost effective to produce a bespoke 360 system or when it is deemed impractical for other reasons.
In recent years we have developed an online platform to support these systems and can now offer flexible approaches to 360 which benefit from participant driven web based data entry, on a bespoke basis, with managment of the process being based in our offices. Our generic system too is now available online with relatively modest pricing (only £95 + VAT for individual reports) and with discounts available for larger advance orders and resellers. A sample report is available together with a leaflet describing the system.
Of course, online is not the appropriate approach for every client! Previously in this Newsletter we described a telephone based system we used at VW for busy senior managers who were unable to spend much time in their offices. Equally, paper based systems are still useful as completed questionnaires can be mailed by participants to external consultants giving a strong guarantee of confidentiality - not everybody trusts the web!
For more details of our approach to 360, or to start to use our generic 360 system, contact Derek Wilkie or 'phone us 0161 877 3277. |
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Newsletter Feedback |
| | Tell us straight!
Why not email us if you have any feedback on the content of this newsletter. If there are issues you want to raise or if there is content you would like to see in the next Newsletter we'd be glad to hear from you. If you have any bright ideas about our services or products that we can share with others we will ask you if we can include them in a forthcoming Newsletter.
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Who are we? |
| For Information
SR&A Limited is a UK company based in Manchester and registered at the address shown at the foot of this Newsletter under Company Registration No. 4887351. Specialising in Business Psychology, our company is led and run by Chartered Psychologists registered with the British Psychological Society. Through SR&A, our psychologists have been working with people in business and the public sector throughout the UK and more widely in the EC since 1990. Visit our website to see the full range of training courses, consulting services, and products we offer. |
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