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Transport for London staff earn tailor-made BTECs

The first Transport for London (TfL) London Buses employees to achieve BTECs from London Buses new Training Centre received their certificates at a reception at the Mayor of London's City Hall last month.

Some 55 operational staff working in the bus and coach industry across London received the BTEC Award 'Supporting Bus and Coach Operations in London', provided by awarding body Edexcel.

The BTEC Award 'Supporting Bus and Coach Operations in London' was developed for London Buses employees in supervisory roles. It includes modules in: contributing to quality of service, work operations, managing work relationships, disability equality, and self-management.

Ray Sutton, London Buses' BTEC assessment manager, said: "This BTEC is specifically designed for our staff. It's a living document that is constructed around our needs. Working with Edexcel, we are able to change the content of the units directly from feedback from learners."

The BTEC Award was the first to be administered by London Buses' own training centre. TfL's trainers and assessors have to be quality assessed by an external verifier.

Dr Steve Collins, the external verifier from Edexcel, said: "The [London Buses] Centre has designed the delivery of the programme to ensure that the quality management standards are rigorous and the Internal Verification process itself is thorough. They even recruited an independent training company, the Assessment Management Centre, to take the assessors through an Assessment NVQ."

Ray Sutton, added: "The fact that everyone was working towards something - the learners towards their BTEC and the trainers and assessors towards their NVQ - meant that everyone got something out of it."

Over the next two years, 650 London Buses employees are expected to take the Award, which is already part of standard training for new staff.

Jim Coyle, business development manager at Edexcel, said: "It's encouraging to see how successful our courses for London Buses have been; using work-based learning and development as a basis for creating bespoke accreditation rooted in job performance and improvement. We're hoping to replicate this example with more employers around the country."

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