by Carlee Tibbs

Created on: November 10, 2010   Last Updated: January 05, 2011

An NVQ is a type of qualification that is usually earned whilst working in the same sector for which you are studying; to enable you to get an NVQ in Health and Social Care, you would typically work for the qualification whilst working in a "care" environment, such as a Residential or Nursing Home. The acronym NVQ stands for "National Vocational Qualification".The NVQ is made up of units and you will be required to complete a certain amount of units before you will be eligible to achieve your NVQ.

The first step in gaining an NVQ in Health and Social Care is to gain a job in that particular sector, most typically a Nursing Home of some type.

Most employers will have their chosen training provider to offer you this qualification but most will also allow you to use another training provider, if you wish. If you wish to choose your own training provider, you should make sure to do thorough research on training providers in your area before deciding on a specific company; in your research you should consider how effective the training is, how "timely" completions are and even drop-out rates could be a deciding factor.

The next step for starting your NVQ would be to sign up with the training provider, which usually requires you to complete and hand in an application form and have an informal interview with your prospective Training Manager.

The Training Manager will discuss with you what framework you will be expected to do in addition to the NVQ.
If you don't wish to do any additional framework, you might be able to do just the NVQ on its own but you will not achieve the full Apprenticeship (level 2) or Advanced Apprenticeship (level 3).

The Training Manager will be able to tell you whether they believe you would be better off doing the full Apprenticeship or Advanced Apprenticeship or doing just the NVQ itself - but this also depends on how much funding the training provider has been given by the Skills Funding Agency (SFA).

During the interview stage, you will be asked to completed some documents and perhaps take some "tests" - this is called an Initial Assessment and will help the Training Manager decide whether to take you on as an Apprentice / Advanced Apprentice or as someone who is doing only the NVQ itself.

After the interview and initial assessment processes, if the Training Manager has agreed to take you on as a learner, you will again be visited by a nominated member of staff from the training provider, who will tell you important information,

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