National Occupational Standards

The Regulatory authorities for qualifications define competence as ‘The ability to perform to standards required in employment across a range of circumstances and to meet changing needs’. National Occupational Standards (NOS) provide a means of describing the competence requirements of an occupation in the workplace and providing a measure for that competence. The Standards thus provide a natural basis for the development of National and Scottish Vocational Qualifications, and it is the role of Awarding Bodies to take this process forward.

The Standards have a wide variety of other purposes, at both the corporate and the individual level, however, the more significant are indicated below.

Recruitment and selection

Preparing recruitment specifications and job advertisements Identifying components of jobs: present and future

Job design and evaluation

Producing the job specification and description
Monitoring roles and responsibilities
Establishing criteria for payment and reward systems

Training and development programmes

Identifying and specifying organisational needs
Recognising individual achievements
Identifying training and development needs: Continuous Professional Development

Strategic planning of organisational requirements

Development of education and training programmes
Curriculum design and development
Relating skills-based learning to workplace requirements
Developing specific learning objectives
Developing the knowledge content for educational and training courses.

Design of qualifications

Career guidance and development
Auditing skills required and needed
Recognition of competences achieved
Identifying career progression opportunities

Professional requirements

Linking Standards to the requirements of professional Institutions (e.g. APM)

It is the role of the ECITB to maintain the currency and validity of the NOS for the Engineering Construction Industry. This function is carried out by the R&D team. The links on this page take you to the relevant NOS contained within the NOS Directory which is hosted by the UK Commission of Employment and Skills who are the guardians of the national database for all NOS. Any questions or observations to do with the NOS please send to Head of R&D, ECITB at andy.brown@ecitb.org.uk

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