Background

High quality training and educational delivery is crucial in the work of the UK's Armed Forces and MoD Civil Service in ensuring they are able to meet the operational requirements placed upon them.  The rigorous standards applied through their quality assurance systems means they were an obvious partner in the employer trials to become an awarding body.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD), through the Directorate General Training and Education, has been working closely with the Qualification and Curriculum Authority (QCA) in order to achieve Awarding Body status for the whole of Defence.  Although this will not significantly affect their relationships with existing awarding bodies, it does give them the ability to facilitate accreditation for aspects of their training which are not traditionally recognised outside in the civilian world. 

Due to the nature of its work, most Defence employees are young and will leave military service at an early stage in their working life and will have a second or even third career. It is therefore the responsibility of the MoD to provide them with transferable skills and qualifications that are officially recognised, not only within the military, but also by non-military employers.  In turn this will help drive their future careers and also deliver a motivated and skilled staff, better equipped to carry out the MoD’s vital work around the world.

MOD as an awarding organisation film clip

View a transcript of this film clip.

Issue

Having Defence personnel working and living all around the world, languages play a vital role in their success. Several hundred staff go through the MoD's Defence School of Languages (DSL) every year; previously much of their training went unrecognised because it is based on military scenarios and vocabulary, rather than GCSE-type scenarios and vocabulary.  Languages delivered at DSL range from French, Spanish and Russian, up to those highly in demand for the operational circumstances the Services face such as Arabic and Pashto. 

Process

The initial course to be trialled is 'Survival French'.  The MoD's internal training department, the Director General Training and Education (DGTE), will be ensuring the rigorous standards of the Qualifications & Curriculum Authority (QCA) are implemented whilst making certain that the training programmes are of a high quality and fulfil the MoD's needs.

The programme will cover French Survival 01/08, among other languages targeted for inclusion in the programme from the autumn onwards.  At the end of the course, learners will have gained a Level 1 qualification, equivalent to a foundation GCSE. 

The staff of the DSL have been working with the Centre for Information on Language Teaching (CILT) and QCA experts to identify those current DSL language courses which will generate the QCF accredited qualifications, together with the training and assessment strategy for each unit.  In the future every element of DSL training has the potential of becoming an accredited qualification, ensuring the service personnel are rewarded for their learning throughout their career. 

The end result will be robust and officially accredited courses which reflect the specific training needs of military personnel but which can be used during and after their military career ends.

Quote

Commander Andy Cropley (Commanding Officer of the Defence School of Languages) says of the initiative: 

'The linguistic skills attained by soldiers, sailors and airmen and women through immense effort on intensive language courses over many months merits national recognition.  The specific languages and contexts for which we train have hitherto made this very difficult to achieve but now we have the ability to ensure that military language skills, at whatever level, are understood by those outside the Services. I am delighted that DSL has been given the opportunity to be the pioneer for the Defence Awarding Body and look forward immensely to seeing our first students receive their nationally recognised awards'.

Transcript of the film clip

Lt Col Nick Maher, Ministry of Defence: 'The brand of defence is actually very strong, and what we'd seek to do is use our brand-which is well-recognised amongst the public in terms of the high quality of what we do-and then convert that into real benefits for our people.'

Cdr Andy Cropley RN, Commanding Officer, Defence School of Languages: 'Nationally recognised qualifications for the Defence School of Languages are incredibly valuable and will prove their worth very quickly. Our students work very hard over often very long periods of time up to 18 months to achieve pretty high level of skill in some difficult languages. To do that, they make considerable sacrifice in terms of taking their career forward. So, to be able to incentivise people to come forward, to learn a language, will help us the school but more importantly help us to deliver a vital defence capability.'

Lt Col Nick Maher, Ministry of Defence: 'Defence already has very good relationships with existing awarding bodies, and yet there are some very very key areas that we traditionally can't do anything with. We can't get them recognised on the outside world, in the civilian world. So for us, the ability to be able to take those areas, match them against the civilian world, get them nationally recognised will really really benefit our people in the long term.

Cdr Andy Cropley RN, Commanding Officer, Defence School of Languages: 'Defence School of Languages is incredibly proud to be in the vanguard of the defence and indeed government awarding body status. It's terrific for us. It means we're on a fairly steep learning curve and we're having to work hard to make this work, looking hard at our processes insuring that the quality control quality insurance systems are in place, that we have good design, and that we have proper and appropriate external evaluation of what we do within the MoD and also through QCA. In terms of recruitment of people wanting to be linguists, I think it has to be a positive thing. One of the gripes, if you like, of our students and people who might otherwise become students is that there is not much in it for them, being a linguist. They work for a very long period of time to gain the language, and they go away, yes they go off to do some interesting jobs but in the longer term they have nothing really to show for that. This also will give them something that not only is a certificate that has national recognition but is something that will be recognised and understood by anyone across the employment sector.