National Occupational Standards

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Consultations

View the current National Occupational Standards Consultations

What are National Occupational Standards?

National Occupational Standards (NOS) are agreed statements of skills, knowledge and understanding required of individuals at work. In particular they:

• describe good practice in particular areas of work
• set out a statement of competence which bring together the skills, knowledge,and understanding necessary to do the work
• provide managers with a tool for a wide variety of workforce management and quality control
• offer a framework for training and development
• form the basis of National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) , Scottish Vocational Qualifications (SVQs) and an increasing number of Vocationally Related Qualifications (VRQs).

How can they be used by employers?

Employers can use NOS to assist with a range of activities in the workplace:

Business Planning

Managers can use NOS to:

• describe the skills they need in their workforce
• assess the skills already in the workforce
• develop training and recruitment plans to fill any identified gaps and shortages.

Selection and Recruitment

• NOS can be used to form the basis of job descriptions
• NOS can assist with staff retention – if the person with the appropriate skills is recruited they are more likely to stay with the organisation and make a useful contribution.

Staff Development

NOS contain descriptions of good practice and can be used as the basis for setting objectives in performance and appraisal.

Developing and Evaluating Training

Training plans and training courses can be developed to meet both organisational and individual learning needs. NOS can be used to inform the content of training as they specify in detail what constitutes good practice. They can also be used to evaluate training by defining the expected outcomes.

Benchmarking

The NOS provide an excellent basis from which to develop bench marking exercises either internally or to compare with other similar organisations. 

What else can NOS be used for?

Individual employees can use the NOS as a form of self-assessment:

Self Assessment

Employees can use the NOS to undertake a self-assessment of their competencies against their own or other jobs. This can be helpful for someone considering a career move or simply for their own professional development.

Education providers may also find the NOS useful for the following:

Mapping Provision

Education and training providers can map their current provision of courses, workshops etc against the relevant NOS. This enables providers to identify gaps in provision, and can highlight where there is a need to update material to include new areas or to remove materials which are out of date.

New Provision

Education and training providers can also use the NOS to develop entirely new courses basing the syllabus on the units of competence which make up the NOS.

Who Develops NOS?

NOS are developed by the Sector Skills Council working closely with employers and professional bodies. Within the Asset Skills sector NOS have been developed in a number of areas.

Applications of NOS

Because NOS form a ready-made, nationally agreed set of competencies, they can be deployed to support the organisation to: read more...

NOS

Click here for Housing NOS

Click here for Property Services NOS

Click here for Facilities Management NOS

Click here for Cleaning Services NOS

Click here for Property, Caretaking and Facilities Services NOS

Click here for the Administration of Local Revenues and Associated Benefits NOS