Dear All,
 

The Awarding Body team continues to identify ways to improve their service and efficiency, and is currently meeting the target of eight weeks to process Level 1 and 2 results.

The examination reassessment process has been reviewed with the aim of making the application form and guidelines more straight forward and easier to understand. There is also a new area on the website dedicated to reassessments which currently has copies of the new forms. The area is being developed further and with the aim of including more information on where to take a resit.  As the Institute of Swimming are now arranging resit venues across their regions, the intention is to publish a list of dates and locations on the website so that information is easily accessible for IOS candidates. 

The Awarding Body have recently introduced the facility for customers to pay by debit and credit card when ordering replacement certificates. This is going very well and customers are finding it a far quicker way to process their certificate when they require it in a hurry. The payments are processed by Finance, who ensure a very fast turn around on our current volumes. 

The External Verification process for Approved Centres is now well underway and the response from the centres is very positive. The feedback received suggests that they welcome the support of the External Verifier (EV) can provide and the key contacts role is now better understood. The priority for EV’s at the moment is to carry out final approval visits of the Approved Centres and external verification of Level 2 courses. 

Level 1 courses will begin to be covered later this month once the required documentation has been finalised. We have also been able to identify some areas that require development so that we can enhance the EV process further. At a recent meeting, the team of EV’s were given further updates and a standardisation training session. They were also given the opportunity to discuss local issues within their Regional teams, which proved effective.

The new National Curriculum Training Program syllabus is now being run across the country - over 550 candidates to date have been certificated.

The Teacher/Coach Licensing Scheme is in the final stages of its review and the new scheme is intended for release in April. 

The Institute of Swimming (IOS) is pleased to announce that over 4000 people have attended over 300 IOS courses in England since April 2008. This is well above what was anticipated at the start of the year and is a fantastic result for the organisation.
 
The IOS is also working closely with nearly 300 centres nationwide and is reviewing its network to ensure courses can be offered to all regions. Additionally, a number of big providers including DC Leisure, SLM, GLL and Serco are working with the IOS.

The application period is now closed for IOS tutor training. Over 130 applications have been received which will be short listed in the next two weeks, with interviews and assessments being held in February.

The total amount of IOS courses registered so far, for the early part of the year include 51 in January, 58 in February and 30 in March. These can be found at www.britishswimming.org > Teachers & Coaching > Find a course.

The modules that make up the Level 1 e-learning project are in the final testing stage and work on the system of delivery has now commenced. This will enable candidates to complete some of the Level 1 unit online, providing a better customer service. 

Colin Huffen now manages the tutors Ellie Purvis, Ray Butters, Donna Whitlow and the new National Curriculum Training Program tutor Jan Tattersall.  A UKCC Level 3 presenters standardisation day took place in Loughborough on January 7th, with record numbers on the programme and a huge interest for the upcoming units due to start in February, March and April.

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If you would like future editions of this update emailed straight to you as soon as they become available, please send your contact details to claire.freeman@swimming.org