Jargon Buster – do you know the difference between your PQ, NOS and PRTL?
Sunday, May 25th, 2008
Sometimes, we can get so hung up on jargon, acronyms and professional speak that we lose sight of the fact that they fail to bring understanding or enlightenment to people outside of our world. Creating more jargon is not the answer. Changing the words we use might work better and possibly glossaries of terms and jargon busters are a step on the way.
Our sector desperately needs to communicate effectively to so many different stakeholders. Why is it such a major challenge keeping up to date with the latest acronyms, initials and jargon, especially in the areas of workforce development, education and training?
We are currently identifying useful resources and compiling a glossary of the most common terms and acronyms used across the care sector. You can then ask the GSCC about your PRTL (gaining information from our website may qualify!) and request a TNA from your employer who may refer to the PQ and seek guidance from the SSC about the relevant NOS.
GSCC – General Social Care Council
The General Social Care Council is responsible for setting standards of conduct and practice for social care workers and their employers, for regulating the workforce, and for regulating social work education and training.
PRTL – Post-Registration Training and Learning
Every social worker registered with the GSCC shall, within the period of registration, complete either 90 hours or 15 days of study, training, courses, seminars, reading, teaching or other activities which could reasonably be expected to advance the social worker’s professional development, or contribute to the development of the profession as a whole.
TNA – Training Needs Analysis
An analysis of training needs to identify any skill gaps for organizations and individuals.
PQ- Post Qualifying
Education and training undertaken by qualified social workers and other professionals. Social workers need to evidence their PQ training and CPD when submitting their PRTL to maintain their registration with the GSCC Social Care Register..
SSC – Sector Skills Council
Each SSC works to agree priorities and targets with its employers and partners to address four key goals:
• reducing skills gaps and shortages
• improving productivity, business and public service performance
• increasing opportunities to boost the skills and productivity of everyone in the sector’s workforce, including action on equal opportunities
• improving the supply of learning opportunities, including apprenticeships, higher education and national occupational standards
Skills for Care and Development are the Sector Skills Council for social care, children and young people’s workforces in the UK. It is an Alliance of 5 organisations:
Care Council for Wales, Children’s Workforce Development Council, Northern Ireland Social Care Council, Scottish Social Services Council, and Skills for Care
NOS – National Occupational Standards
National Occupational Standards (NOS) have been developed to assist employers, businesses, employees and individuals. They contain descriptions of good practice and can be a benchmark for rewarding experience, knowledge and competence.
NOS Directory
All the NOS developed by Sector Skills Councils (SSCs) and Standard Setting Bodies (SSBs) are available to download on the NOS Directory managed by the Sector Skills Development Agency (SSDA). The NOS Directory is available on the UK Standards website. http://www.ukstandards.org
In the meantime we would like to introduce you to Jargonbuster, a resource drafted by Kevin Ashby and Colin Nee (Charities Evaluation Services), with input from a steering group containing representatives from a number of charitable foundations, grant awarding bodies and national umbrella bodies.
This book defines and explains key terms used in evaluating and monitoring services. Definitions range from milestones to benchmarking and the differences between an output and an outcome are explained in plain english with examples and case studies.
An invaluable resource available to download here or on the Charity Evaluation Services website
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