National Occupational Standards - Course Core Competencies

To set the educational benchmark and ensure the highest standard of student proficiency, all our courses adhere to the highest standards of competency stipulated by the LPA National Occupational Standards. This guarantees all our delegates achieve the highest standard of education across a range of measurable core competencies which are consistent across all our courses.

Upon completion of their course students can be confident in knowing they will have obtained the right level of knowledge, skill, proficiency and competence reflected in the grade of their award measured across a consistent range of core competencies.

What are National Occupational Standards?

NOS describe the skills, knowledge and understanding needed to undertake a particular task or job to a nationally recognised level of competence. They focus on what the person needs to be able to do, as well as what they must know and understand to work effectively. They cover the key activities undertaken within the occupation in question under all the circumstances the jobholder is likely to encounter. (Definition supported by UK Commission for Employment and Skills).

Each NOS contains an agreed set of knowledge and understanding and performance criteria that must be met before someone can be deemed competent. They describe the minimum standard to which an individual is expected to work in a given occupation.

Competency Based Assessments

All of our courses follow the Principles of Good Practice that are underpinned by our National Occupational Standards (NOS) and describe the ways in which practitioners should demonstrate good practice across all of their work.

NOS - Our Principles of Good Practice

These Principles of Good Practice are underpinned by the National Occupational Standards (NOS) and describe the ways in which practitioners should demonstrate good practice across all of their work.

Practitioners working in complementary and natural healthcare should demonstrate:

1.That they partake in regular and appropriate formal supervision

2. An understanding of the philosophy and principles underpinning their chosen coaching modalities

3. An understanding of current legislation and policy as it applies to their discipline

4. Respect for clients’ dignity, privacy, autonomy, cultural differences and rights

5. Regard for the safety of the client and themselves

6. That they learn from others, including clients and colleagues and continually develop their own knowledge, understanding and skills through reflective practice, and research findings

7. An awareness of their own and others' emotional state and responses, incorporating such awareness into their own practice

8. That they communicate clearly, concisely and in a professional manner

9. That they work with confidence, integrity and sensitivity

10.That they undertake systematic, critical evaluation of their professional knowledge

11. That they work within their scope of practice, experience and capability at all times

12 . That each student understands the regulatory framework they work within and the fundamental differences between voluntary and statutory regulation and the impact this has on them in their role.