Skillsmark® is the quality mark for learning and development programmes in the Justice and Community Safety sector. Its rigorous assessment process ensures only high-quality programmes of learning can achieve it. We have now made it more cost-effective and better suited to your needs.

As a not-for-profit organisation we are led by the needs of employers looking to develop the skills of their people to be more effective and efficient, providing the best possible services to the public.

Employers have told us that the quality of learning programmes they purchase and send their staff on is of crucial importance. Consequently, they most value the endorsement of learning programmes within Skillsmark® and in order to continue providing the best possible service, after careful consideration, we have refocused Skillsmark® on this crucial element.

From May 2010, the current two-stage Skillsmark® recognition and endorsement process is replaced by an endorsement-only quality framework. Structured to follow the learning cycle, the Skillsmark® quality framework reflects current best practice in education and training.

Skillsmark® endorsed programmes will continue to provide learners with the skills and knowledge they need for employment and the skills employers want from staff. Endorsed programmes show learners that programmes are up to date, fit for purpose and designed specifically with employers' needs in mind.

Many employers have undergone the rigorous Skillsmark® recognition process. Feedback from employers tells us how helpful this process has been in helping to implement improvements and efficiencies in the way they manage their learning provision. Consequently we will be using the key features of Skillsmark® recognition to develop a tool to help employers review their effectiveness in managing their learning and development provision.

With a focus on endorsement, Skillsmark® assessment costs have been substantially reduced without affecting the quality you can expect from a Skillsmark® endorsed programme.

Skillsmark® endorsed programmes of learning:

• provide learners with the skills and knowledge they need for employment, and that employers want from their staff
  
• show learners and employers that programmes are up to date and fit for purpose
  
• give learning providers a competitive edge by showing that their programmes have been designed with employers' needs specifically in mind.

Endorsed programmes are listed on our new Skillsmark e-directory, which we will actively promote across the Justice and Community Safety sector.

Contact us to find out more on 0114 231 7386, email skillsmark@skillsforjustice.com, or take a look at our new Skillsmark web-pages.

A week of intriguing and historic politics comes to an end and Prime Minister David Cameron has formed his Cabinet. He will make final announcements on the ministerial team today.

Vince Cable is the new Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, whilst Ken Clarke becomes the Justice Minister and Eric Pickles heads up the Communicties and Local Government department.

In the nations, the new Northern Ireland secretary is Owen Paterson, Scotland secretary is Danny Alexander, and
Cheryl Gillan is Welsh secretary.

Nick Herbert takes a crucial joint ministerial role in the Home Office (Policing) and Ministry of Justice.

Parliament has been dissolved, and will be summoned on Tuesday 18 May. The State Opening of Parliament will take place on Tuesday 25 May.

A working trip to another country with a chance to explore different ways of working and meet counterparts in very different areas of the world is not something that happens very often. Yet as Lucie Venables' story shows, daring to take one opportunity opened up a whole realm of new possibilities she had never anticipated.

Lucie is an Anti-Social Behaviour Coordinator for Mid Sussex District Council. When she received a flyer for the Women and Work bursary, she jumped at the chance to do a BTEC Level 5 Award in Neighbourhood Nuisance and ASB Case work Supervision.

"There is no formal training for my role and this course offered a standardised approach that is starting to formalise the role of anti-social behaviour co-ordinators in the UK," Lucie explains.

The course was enjoyable and applicable to her work and career progression. However, it was only later that Lucie found she had been entered into a National Neighbourhood Justice BTEC Student of the Year Award 2009, and was one of three winners!

Not only was this a great accolade to her hard work on the course, but it meant a working trip to New York, to see how justice is delivered in the Bronx.

The winners attended live court sessions, saw community payback in Brooklyn and discussed dealing with domestic violence at the Centre for Court Innovation. Of course, she also got to see the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty.

This trip will have a great impact on Lucie's CV and her ways of working, and her group has been asked to present a research paper to the Government on putting American ideas into action here. So taking the time to think about a Women and Work bursary and fill in a form not only got her subsidised training, but a chance she never dreamed of.

Lucie says, "Do it! You have nothing to lose and you may end up with opportunities you never would have otherwise. I was given the opportunity of a lifetime as a result of taking up a Women and Work bursary."

If you are interested in seeing how a Women and Work bursary could change your life, please contact the team on 0114 231 7392, email us at womenandwork@skillsforjustice.com or take a look at our webpage. Take a chance!

Equality and diversity impact on all organisations. Ensuring your organisation embraces equality and diversity and complies with relevant legislation is a constant challenge. In view of this, we have recently revised our Total Equality Strategy and Total Equality and Diversity Statement, which take into account new legislation.

These documents set out our approach to equality and diversity, explaining what we will do as an employer and as an organisation that exists to support employers.

We have a crucial role in helping employers achieve their vision for equality and diversity through the development of their employees and volunteers.

You may find these documents useful if you want to create a Total Equality Strategy for your own organisation, or want to know more about managing equality and diversity in your workplace.

For more information, take a look at our Total Equality page and download the new documents.

This new Level 4 Scottish Vocational Qualification (SVQ) has just been approved and will soon be available.

Scottish Prison Service (SPS) have been using the SVQ Level 3 in Custodial Care for some time and it is a mandatory requirement for all their Prison Officers. They identified a gap for further development of technical skills and requested that we develop a qualification in Custodial Care.

We then set about developing the qualification structure in consultation with employers and practitioners, so that the SVQ would meet their needs.

This brand new qualification is aimed at operational, residential and first line management, and whilst this qualification is initially aimed at SPS there is interest from other Custodial Care employers in Scotland.

We look forward to hearing about the first candidates to undertake the new SVQ.

For more information contact our Scotland team on 0131 662 5234.

We manage a wide range of standards, qualifications and research activities - view our new update for May 2010 and find out all of the latest progress.

The report is a useful source of information about future National Occupational Standards, qualifications and research that we have been involved in.

Download and read a copy of the May 2010 report.

Content in the articles below has been supplied by external sources.

A forensic psychologist from the Institute of Criminal Justice Studies (ICJS) at the University of Portsmouth is taking part in a groundbreaking new series which examines our powers of recall as witnesses to violent crime.

Dr Becky Milne advised makers of Eyewitness, a three-part series on BBC 2 on how the human memory works. The basis of the programme is that many of us will be a witness to a violent crime in our lifetime but recalling the event to the police is not as easy as we think because our own memory plays tricks on us.

Dr Milne said: "Research reveals that the process of interviewing a witness about their recollection requires specific techniques in itself which interviewing officers can learn. There are ways of asking questions which encourage witnesses to give more detail and allow the police to piece together what happened. Psychological research has provided the police with another set of tools to help them do their job."

Eye witness testimony is just one of the topics that can be studied in the range of degrees on offer from ICJS. From Foundation degrees to Professional Doctorates, there is a potential qualification for everyone. Learn where and when you like, thanks to flexible distance learning. ICJS is one of the largest departments of its kind in the world and can offer study programmes in Risk and Security, Counter Fraud, Psychology, Criminology and Policing that fully support your professional development.

For more information, please apply online.


(web link - http://ad-emea.doubleclick.net/clk;223793874;48317457;x?http://www.port.ac.uk/icjs).