Care Academy Blog

Wednesday, December 01, 2010

Following the announcement that City & Guilds will end registration onto their Learning Disability Qualification - Induction Award on 31st December 2010 (read details on City & Guilds web site) we have seen an upsurge in registrations over the past few weeks. We fully anticipate this trend to continue right up until the deadline, as clients seek to secure access to the current qualification before the window closes. Any candidates registered before the deadline, will of course then be able to complete their qualification in the normal manner.

Although not yet confirmed, it's looking likely that there will be no direct replacement 'Award' available on the QCF. It seems candidates will be required to undertake a Health and Social Care Diploma at either Level 2 or 3 and select a Learning Disability Specialist Pathway alongside the mandatory components. Perhaps not an ideal scenario for everyone.

Naturally we will continue to monitor the situation as it develops, but our current advice remains the same, register as many candidates as possible before the deadline if you wish to secure access to the current qualification.

Please feel free to contact us directly on 0161 228 1712 or via our online form form if you have any questions.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Following the successful launch of our Learning Disability Qualification - Induction Award (LDQ-IA) Care Academy is now available to established training providers as a ‘White’ label solution.

Training providers can now become part of one of the UK’s leading e-learning communities and gain access to our innovative range of learning technologies. We currently provide on-line learning and assessment materials to over 25,000 users including Common Induction Standards for adults and children's services, Safeguarding Vulnerable Adults (SOVA), Safe Food Hygiene and we are the only provider of a City and Guilds accredited on-line LDQ-IA qualification. We are also currently working on a number of specialist courses which include 'End of Life', 'Understanding Dementia' and 'Nutrition and Well-Being'. 

By signing-up as a Care Academy partner, training organisations will be able to deliver a wide range of courses including our unique LDQ-IA. This scarce, yet highly sought after qualification is delivered entirely online, including learning content, assignments and assessor feedback, making it a very cost-effective option.

We are currently receiving enquiries from individuals and care organisations throughout the UK looking to identify providers of LDQ-IA and we will be happy to pass these onto our registered ‘White Label’ training partners. To-date we have received enquiries totalling in excess of 5,000 qualifications!

To help our training partners get the most out of Care Academy, we are also currently developing an NVQ ToolKit which combines our learning content, NVQ knowledge assessments and our Accredited Prior Learning (APL) tool to streamline candidate assessment and portfolio building tasks.

Care Academy is currently in discussions with many leading Health and Social Care training providers including; Colleges and Universities, Local Authorities, Care Partnerships and private training providers and aims to be the number one choice for technology enabled learning.

If you wish to become part of this exciting phase of development and really move your training provision forward, please contact us or download further details here.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Care Academy would like to extend a warm welcome to our latest clients The Priory Group, Care UK, Circle Anglia and Lancashire Workforce Development Partnership who are all currently piloting the UK's first and only accredited online Learning Disability Qualifcation - Induction Award programme.

As a fully online programme, both the delivery of learning content and assessment is delivered via our unique Care Academy Learning Management System, which means no lost paperwork and every user's details are instantly available and fully trackable!

We wish all our new clients every success with their pilots and look forward to rolling out even more courses and programmes with them in the near future.

To help new customers understand how our online Learning Disability Qualification actually works, including the submission and marking of assignments online, we have created a short presentation which is available as either a PowerPoint or PDF document. If you would like to receive a copy of the presentation please contact us on 0161 228 1712 or via our online form.

Care Academy is currently running a pilot programme with Lancashire Workforce Development Partnership to provide funded places to qualifying members on our unique Learning Disability Qualification - Induction Award (LDQ-IA) programme. As a fully accredited City and Guilds centre, Care Academy is able to offer the UK's only fully online LDQ-IA.

Following the successful launch of the pilot, we still have a very small number of funded places available, so please get in touch if you wish to discuss this offer.

We are also in discussion with many similar funding partners throughout the UK, so please contact us to register your interest and we will keep you up to date as funding opportunities become available.

Tuesday, December 09, 2008

Following the successful launch of Care Academy Learning Disability Qualification - Induction Award we have been busy registering organisation's and individuals alike!

Key organisation's already using our unique on-line system include Henshaws College, part of Henshaws Society for blind people who aim to put through up to 50 learning disability specialist to help them meet their CSCI inspections.

We have also recently signed up Frontier Support Services a London based provider of specialist supported living services for individuals with a learning disability, dual diagnosis, Aspergers Syndrome and Autism.

Frontier Support Services are a small but growing company who put investment in training at the heart of their commitment to achieving service excellence through a well trained workforce. Commenting on why they chose Care Academy Frontier state;

"With a dispersed workforce and staff working variable hours the opportunity for flexible access to training is essential if staff are to develop. Regardless of contracted hours all staff have equitable opportunity to manage their own learning schedule.Being able to work at their own pace also contributes to the likelihood of a successful learning outcome".

To find out more about how our Learning Disability Qualification - Induction Award can help you meet your regulatory requirements contact us directly for an informal chat.

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Here at Care Academy we are happy to report our online Learning Disability Qualification - Induction Award (LDQ-IA) is going from strength to strength and having recently achieved City and Guilds Approved Centre status we thought that some more information about why we chose City and Guilds would be helpful.

The LDQ-IA qualification which includes both the level 2 and level 3 Induction Award in supporting people with learning disabilities is based on the framework developed by Skills for Care and the Valuing People Support Team.

City and Guilds state:

"The intention for these qualifications is to benefit learners by developing their skills and facilitating career progression and to benefit employers by providing certificated evidence that the employers have fulfilled their responsibility to provide learning to their workers that meets Common Induction Standards."

The qualifications are also designed to contribute to learner’s knowledge and understanding of the related Level 2 and Level 3 NVQs in Health and Social Care along with the Skills for Care’s Common Induction Standards.

If you would like to know more about the benefits of the LDQ-IA qualification please visit our website or contact Paul Allman on 0161 228 1712.

Monday, September 29, 2008

We are delighted to announce that Care Academy is now an approved City and Guilds assessment centre, offering both level 2 and 3 Learning Disability Qualification Induction Award (LDQ-IA) to all the candidates.

The LDQ Induction Award is the replacement of the Learning Disability Awards Framework (LDAF) and consists of four modules:

Module One: Principles of learning disability

Module Two: Your role as a learning disability worker

Module Three: Health and Safety in a learning disability Service

Module Four: Protecting people who have learning disabilities from abuse

Here at Care Academy we are thrilled to be an approved assessment centre and have chosen to run our programme with City and Guilds due to their wide range of courses, designed by people within industry to help students learn skills relevant to their employment ambitions.

The LDQ has been developed in conjunction with key bodies within care including the Valuing People Support Team (VPST), The Children’s Workforce Development Council (CWDC), Skills for Health and the 'In Control’ Project'. Their involvement ensures the qualification is relevant, up to date and valued by employers.

Confirming the importance of the LDQ qualification, Skills for Care state:

"Completion of the Induction Award will enable learners to demonstrate that they have met the requirements of the Common Induction Standards in a learning disability context"

Here at the Care Academy we will be registering candidates for both level 2 and 3 of the LDQ. For more information please contact Paul Allman on 0161 228 1712 or visit our website.

Monday, September 22, 2008

MacIntyre is a charity set up more than 40 years ago to provide education and care for children and adults with learning disabilities. They have recently begun to offer e-learning as a popular alternative to traditional class room learning.

MacIntyre, who pride themselves on having successfully provided in-house training for many years have now launched their own eLDQ programme, which highlights the huge advantages of E-learning:

Convenience: Traditional offline training normally means employees need to collectively leave the workplace; this is not the case for e-learning.

Cost: E-learning is much more cost effective as learning can be done one candidate at a time.

Time: E-learning allows you to undertake your training whenever and wherever you want.

Here at Care Academy, we also offer an eLDQ solution and are very happy to see an increase in companies recognising these advantages and hope to see a rise in the number of care organisations like MacIntyre introducing e-learning into their training.

Care Academy is the market-leading e-learning solution with more than 8,000 registered users completing in excess of 300,000 learning activities and assessments, from a number of organisations including CIC, Manpower, Care@, BS Social Care and Henshaws Society for Blind People. For more information on Care Academy visit the website or call us on 01612281712.

Thursday, September 04, 2008

Due to growth of Care Academy, we are currently looking for Assessors and Internal Verifiers for the Learning Disability Qualification – Induction Award. This requirement is for both Level 2 and 3 and is on a call-off contract basis.

We are looking for individuals who have Learning Disability Service experience and either experience in the provision of LDQ-IA or H&SC NVQ Levels 2 and 3.

To apply for this job, please click here.

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Over the past few weeks we have been asked about the Learning Disability Qualification (LDQ) and the relevance of the QCA "10 week rule".

The QCA (Qualification and Curriculum Authority) put in place a 10 week rule for NVQ’s. This rule prohibits training providers from Certifying an Candidate within 10 weeks of their registration and was put in place to to prevent training providers withholding Registration fees until the NVQ was complete.

Many have assumed the rule will also apply to the LDQ.  In fact, there is very little guidance online to suggest otherwise.

However, City and Guilds Quality Manager has confirmed the 10 week rule does not apply to the LDQ.  This is particularly good news for Care Agencies, who need to have their staff inducted, and in the case of the LDQ, qualified in as short a time as possible.  Many of our Care Agency clients target their candidates to complete Induction within 6 weeks (the average time taken to receive a CRB check).

So, finally, confirmation that the 10 week rule does not apply to the LDQ.