David Harbourne, director of the Learning and Skills Council North Yorkshire, sings the praises (and points out the imperfections) of NVQs...

I firmly believe in giving recognition for a job well done. That's the principle behind the Evening Press Business Awards, of course!

It's also the principle behind National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs). NVQs give proper recognition to the vast range of skills and knowledge people use at work.

This is done mainly through assessments carried out while the candidate is doing his or her job, and the candidate's background knowledge is also tested.

Once the assessor is satisfied that the candidate has all the required skills and knowledge, the qualification can be issued. Quite a number of bodies are allowed to award qualifications, one of the best known being City and Guilds. The role of awarding bodies includes carrying out checks to make sure that assessments are carried out fairly and consistently.

Who decides what should be covered by the qualifications? The short answer is employers themselves. They make sure that qualifications test the skills, knowledge and techniques needed in the modern workplace. The Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) then makes sure that the qualifications fit into a national framework.

Most young people starting out as Modern Apprentices work towards a level 2 qualification in the first instance. A level 2 NVQ shows that the candidate has a broad range of craft and technical skills. Many move on to take a level 3, which demonstrates a more advanced level of skill and often also covers the skills needed to be an effective supervisor. Level 2 is broadly equivalent to 5 GCSEs at grades A to C, and level 3 is comparable to two 'A' Levels.

I am firm believer in the value of NVQs. They are built around the needs of employers, and they give recognition to the vast range of skills which people use at work. They are not easy to get, because they call for genuine breadth and depth of ability, demonstrated consistently over a period of weeks or months.

However, I would be the first to accept that NVQs are not perfect. If we're honest, they are best suited to the needs of young people at the start of their working lives. For an adult who already has a lot of experience in the workplace, they can seem inflexible and unwieldy. And there is no doubt about it, the assessment process is bureaucratic: current arrangements generate a fair amount of paperwork.

The good news is that the Government has agreed to a review of qualifications to make them more user-friendly for adults and their employers. Ministers have asked the Learning and Skills Council and the QCA to come up with proposals for greater flexibility.

This is likely to mean breaking qualifications into smaller units, and using different ways of recording evidence to support the assessment process - tape recorders, videos, computer evidence, that sort of thing.

I welcome this move, which will make it much easier for adults throughout York and North Yorkshire to get official recognition of their skills and knowledge, and to add to their skills in the future.

Updated: 10:11 Tuesday, May 27, 2003