Training is vital in ensuring that Business Continuity skills are developed and maintained within an organisation. Even the largest organisations are rarely able to provide suitable training in-house and rely on a variety of training providers to fill this need. This has led to a plethora of BC courses which may promote different views of the scope, content and vocabulary of the subject and be delivered to varying standards of presentation. The BCI is frequently asked to recommend suitable courses but it has been unable to differentiate between the courses on offer in the absence of an assessment process.
The new BCI Training Endorsement Scheme has been introduced in response to the need for a quality standard for Business Continuity Training. Its objectives are:
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To ensure that students are presented with a consistent methodology across various BCI endorsed courses.
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To demonstrate to potential students that the advertised course is delivered to a high standard of content and presentation
In creating a benchmark it is hoped that this will raise the overall standard of training across the industry.
The first providers in the UK have completed the scheme and are now able to provide BCI endorsed courses. There has been considerable interest in the scheme from European training providers and a pilot scheme is underway to enable courses in the Pacific Rim to undergo the same assessment process.
The Scheme provides two levels of endorsement:
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Listed - where the course content matches the BCI Certification Standards and GPG based on an review of course materials by a BCI assessor
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Approved - as `listed` and, in addition, course delivery by the trainer has been evaluated by a BCI assessor attending all or part of the course
A handbook describing the operation of the scheme is available for download from the BCI website and training organisations are asked to look at this in the first instance before applying for endorsement.
A BCI supplied certificate of attendance will be issued to students by the training provider for `listed` and `approved` courses. Student`s BCI scored assessment points for attendance on an endorsed course will be higher than those with no BCI endorsement. These points are counted in an assessment for the awarding of membership grades.
Students attending an `approved` course who are not already members of the BCI will be enrolled as BCI Affiliates for one year by the Training Promoter. On receipt of the membership information from the BCI, the student can apply for a scored assessment (at the current fee) to upgrade to Associate ; if this is done within a month no further membership fee will be charged for that year. Those who are already members of the BCI will be able to benefit from discounts offered by the Training Promoter.
