Professional Competence qualifications give learners the opportunity to:

• engage in learning which is relevant to them and will provide opportunities to develop a range of skills and techniques, personal skills and attributes essential for successful performance in working life
• gain knowledge, understanding and skills they need to prepare for employment
• gain a nationally recognised vocationally specific qualification to enter employment in the IT sector or to progress to higher education vocational qualifications
• develop functional skills and personal learning and thinking skills essential for successful performance in working life
• certificate smaller blocks of learning which are designed to motivate them and encourage widening participation in education and training.

These qualifications:

• are nationally recognised
• are based on the National Occupational Standards (NOS) for IT and Telecoms Professionals.

The NOS assessment requirements/strategy and qualification structure are owned by e-skills UK. The e-skills UK NOS detail the range of discrete areas of competence needed to describe the diverse job roles in the IT and Telecoms industries, and IT professional jobs in other sectors. The e-skills UK NOS also include the discrete areas of competence needed by IT users in all sectors of industry. They have been developed in consultation with employers, and are articulated and maintained by e-skills UK on behalf of industry. NOS provide a common industry-recognised reference framework that can be used for a variety of training and development purposes, for example writing and reviewing job descriptions, assessing staff or developing training programmes such as apprenticeships. NOS also underpin vocational qualifications – i.e. National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) in England and Wales and the Scottish Vocational Qualifications (SVQs) in Scotland. The Pearson BTEC Professional Competence for IT and Telecoms Professionals suite of qualifications has been approved as the components required for the IT apprenticeship framework.

These qualifications are designed to prepare learners for employment in the IT and Telecoms sector and are suitable for those who have decided that they wish to enter a specific area of work within the IT and Telecoms industry.

It is a benchmark of your skills that is nationally recognised. It could even be internationally recognised if you choose to go down the professional qualification route with the IET. You could gain ICTTech or EngTech status. See the IET for more details about professional certification.

To gain this qualification you simply prove you are competent in a number of different areas. You provide evidence of your competence through observation on the job, witness testimony and work product evidence among others. You build up a portfolio of evidence which is assessed by an occupationally competent assessor on our e-portfolio.

Job Roles this course is suitable for:

Please note that you must be employed in the sector so as to generate evidence. This is not suitable for those who are not currently working.

There are over 50 units to choose from depending on the type of work you do. There are 2 mandatory modules, but the remainder are up to you, and can be a mixture of level 2, 3 or 4 units. As long as 60% are at the level of the qualification or above.

Your assessor will construct an Individual Learning Plan (ILP) with you and discuss where evidence will come from.  Prices do not include assessor travel or associated expenses if needed.

You are allowed 18 months to complete from registration. Your progress can be monitored in OneFile as we will program your start and finish dates. If you do not complete within the given time, you can extend on a month by month basis.