Introducing our new education partner quality assurance framework
At CIMSPA we are proud to work with our excellent education partners that deliver high quality CPD, qualifications and degree programmes for those working in, or aiming to work in, the sport and physical activity sector.
It’s crucial that professionals working in the sector can easily identify high quality learning, development and training which will help them evolve their practice, stay current and enable them to build and develop their career. It’s also important that those looking to enter the sector know that the qualifications and training they are doing will give them the best start to their career. To help, CIMSPA endorses, and quality assures the learning and training provision that our education partners deliver.
To ensure that we can continue to support our Training Provider Partners to offer the very best quality provision, we are launching our second phase of the Quality Assurance Framework which we will use as part of our regular reviews with all of our Training Provider Partners.
What this means for individuals working in, or aspiring to work in, our sector
If you are looking for an education, learning or training provider to support you with gaining a qualification or undertaking CPD, make sure that you use our education partner directories to choose CIMSPA endorsed, and quality assured provision.
What this means for employers
When you are looking for professional learning and/or qualifications for your staff, make sure that you select provision from a CIMSPA education partner. Our endorsed providers are quality assured and offer learning and training which will help your staff to develop their professional practice and the services that you offer.
You can find out more and access our partner directories on our website here.
What this means for education and training providers
Our new Quality Assurance Framework will be used when we conduct our quality assurance reviews with you.
The Framework sets out the methodology CIMSPA will apply to the quality assurance review, and the outcomes that we will define when conducting a review, including the ratings that the review can provide.
There are three review outcome ratings that a provider can achieve:
- Enhancing – providers identified as enhancing have evidenced good practice within their operations, processes, and procedures, and are seen to be offering high quality education provision to its learners/participants by CIMSPA.
- Enabling – providers identified as enabling have evidenced some good practice within their operations, processes, and procedures. CIMSPA will provide clear actions to support the development of the provider partner to ensure high quality education provision to its learners/participants.
- Emerging – providers identified as emerging have key actions which need to be completed within a specified time frame, to ensure that they meet CIMSPA standards and expectations of provider partners. CIMSPA will provide bespoke support to providers identified as emerging to ensure sufficient quality developments to achieve an enabling or enhancing outcome, following the next quality assurance review.
CIMSPA quality assurance activity provides an independent external review of our education partner provision and, where needed, identifies improvements to be made to enhance learner experience.
Our quality assurance reviews are based on a range of supplied evidence and evaluated against a review framework, underpinned by our policies, procedures and relevant legislation.
CIMSPA will reach the outcome rating based on the following principles:
- Quality of education provision
- Learner journey
- Marketing and promotion
Natasha Eason, Head of Education at CIMSPA said,
“It’s absolutely essential that our members, employers and people aspiring to work in the sector know that if they invest their time and money in professional development and/or gaining a qualification, it is of the best quality and will help them with their professional recognition and career development.
“That’s why we operate an education partner endorsement programme. If you choose provision that we at CIMSPA endorse, you can be assured that it is good quality and will support your work and your career. Our partners cover a wide breadth of provision and include training providers, Further Education colleges and Higher Education Institutes.
“To support our education partners further, we’ve enhanced our current Quality Assurance Strategy to encompass a new framework. It aims to not only identify great practice and high-quality provision, but also to help providers that partner with us to further develop the services that they offer to learners and participants.”
If you are a training or education provider and would like to know more about becoming a CIMSPA endorsed education partner, you can find more information below.