Posted By Philip McAleenan Paul, Candidates for any NVQ must demonstrate their knowledge of the domain in which they seek accreditation. This requires study and experience. The former requires that candidates obtain and study appropriate materials, i.e. materials that have been researched and published by another. On reading John Fox’s web-site this seems to be what he is offering, a set of materials to be studied by candidates. He states that the CD ROM that he is offering covers all the domain knowledge units and that it will save months of research. Not unlike walking into the library or a bookshop and picking up the materials you need. Using this material is no different than using other sources of information. The charge that it will lead to plagiarism fails to recognise that plagiarism is behaviour on the part of the candidate, not the material plagiarised. “Material sold for this purpose may be used by those who cannot aspire to reach the standards set by NVQ, thus leading to a MIOSH grade with little H&S credentials” is a rather strange statement. Surely materials sold for the purpose of assisting people gain the knowledge for an NVQ is sold to people who do aspire to to reach the standards. Additionally, it is wrong to assume that those who purchase these materials have not nor are able to gain/demonstrate H&S credentials. The Code of Conduct does not lay down any expectations in respect of materials, only in respect of professionals belonging to the Institution. There is always room for authors of quality safety materials, so why not go for it yourself, you never know, all your blood, sweat and tears may pay of in ways you hadn’t dreamed of… Regards, Philip

Posted By Linda Crossland-Clarke Hi I think that Paul has a valid point. The NVQ is about what you do in the work environment, i would hope that a lot of evidence submitted is demonstrating a candiates competence in this environment. The course is not about doing a bit of research and then constructing a document or form to be submitted for their NVQ. Also, if you offer help to someone on this forum - its a bit of a **** to then try and charge someone for it. Regards. Linda. SHE Knows.

Posted By Philip McAleenan Paul, 'Rose coloured glasses' , indeed. I fear that the title of this thread is misleading and does Mr Fox an injustice. He IS NOT selling a MIOSH on e-bay as is implied by it. He is marketing study materials pertinent to one aspect of the H&S NVQ, namely domain knowledge. Complaints against Mr Fox would need to be based on evidence and valid arguments that he is acting unprofessionally. Unfortunately none have been made on this thread to date. Give the man a break, relax and let those who would purchase his materials evaluate it themselves and use/reject accordingly. After all ten quid is not a bad price to pay for something of value, nor is it too much to lose if it turns out to be poor quality. Think of the price of other materials being offered for this NVQ. Philip

Posted By John Fox Hi This is not an easy way to get MIOSH acreditation. Its is what i produced when i was doing my course and it is meant as a guide and definitly not an answer. I am an assessor and if the material was produced i would soon know if the candidate had not reached the required standard and was just producing a copy. I spent a lot of time on this and it is just ab guide like any other. I also post my certificate notes. You still have to do the work to rezch the standard. I will remove any thing which is thought to be a breach of the code of conduct since it is definitly not supposed to be that. Anyone with any comments who would like to discuss this with me can email me direct at john@afox.wanadoo.co.uk Thank you John

Posted By Carol Ives I would like to pick up on the comments made by David reference NVQ Leve 4 and would agree to some extent that there are a few Providers out there who do not maintain the standards. However, as a Provider and Assessor I would like to state, that in my opinion the qualification and standards that individuals need to aspire to for successful completion are good. The problem does occur when we have assessors and verifiers who are perhaps prepared to sign off evidence, without questionning this or probing to ensure that this is the candidate's own work. I constantly come under pressure from students when they face a situation of some difficulty in providing their own evidence to meet a particular requirement, however, my job is to advise them and help them - not to give in to their demands. It is not unusual to have a candidate who feels that he/or she is being treated unjustly and knows of a friend or colleague with another provider whose work was "cut and paste" and this was accepted by the particular Provider in question. I am not certain what the answer is to this, except the Approval Bodies perhaps ought to be a little more vigilant. Having said this, we should not deter individuals from taking the qualification, it is an extremely good programme, with a huge learning curve. My only advice to them would be check out your Provider and ask searching questions prior to signing up. Carol Ives - Acton Jennings