ANNEX B - 6
WORKING WITH IEXPE ON MEMBERSHIP CRITERIA
At the IExpE AGM in Apr 15, a new grade of Technical Member (TMIExpE) was approved and it was
introduced in 2016. Existing Associate members (AIExpE) of the Institute will continue with their
current rights and benefits and they will also be offered the opportunity to change to the new grade.
Event Horizon and BECTU requested that the three grades of BECTU qualification should be aligned
with the
grades of IExpE membership
:
BECTU GRADE
IExpE GRADE
Trainee
Student
Technician
Technical Member
Associate (for those already in IExpE before 31
Dec 15)
Senior Technician
Member
Supervisor
Member
Fellow
DESIGNING THE NEW QUALIFICATIONS
Event Horizon met the awarding organisation, Homeland Security Qualifications (HSQ), because it is
the awarding organisation that creates, manages and awards qualifications in order to maintain
impartial governance and rigour in the system. This principle applies whether the qualifications are
national, industry-standard or bespoke for a particular organisation.
We had an idea of what we wanted but were concerned about the sheer volume of individual
Standards in each Role Profile that we had created. The role profile for the Technician grade includes
over a hundred individual Standards in eleven key roles. Clearly this was going to be unmanageable
and place an unfair burden on candidates and assessors.
Fortunately, HSQ has dealt with this situation on many occasions and they were able to advise on
how to whittle down the number of Standards in a qualification that remains relevant to the industry
and individual while ensuring the core competence of the individual and maintaining the required
quality. As it happens, HSQ had designed qualifications for the use of explosives in the
entertainment industry some years ago, in concert with stage and film pyrotechnicians and civil war
re-enactors, but none of which had been taken up as a formal qualification. Our design session with
HSQ therefore became a lot easier as it then required us to update the qualifications, ensuring that
the critical, core needs of BECTU and the wider SFX community were still met.
The actual design of the Level 3 Diploma in the Use of Explosives in the Entertainment Industry
includes 17 Standards that, when combined, demonstrate the overall competence of the candidate.
The Key Roles covered in the Level 3 Diploma are: Explosives Safety Management; Procurement;
Movement; Other Applications (Entertainment); Generic. The design sets out the Standards the
candidate is required to complete, the EQF Level, the Combination Value ( a representative value
that is similar in all respects to the number of credits that might be attributed to a standard if it were
included in an academic course) and the nominal number of hours of learning time (DLH in the
table, ‘Directed Learning Hours’, which can be time in training, private study or gaining experience
on the job) a candidate is expected to take on average to achieve the standard. In most cases the
ANNEX B - 7
‘HSQ Unit No’ is the same as the National Occupational Standard reference number, but HSQ has
simplified their listing by renumbering some of the NOS that include the suffix ‘A’, e.g. QU2.15 is
listed in the NOS as 2.9A.
A top-level qualification design looks like this (many of the rows are omitted for brevity):
HSQ Unit
No.
Unit Title
Level
Combinati
on Value
DLH
QU2.15
Implement risk control measures for explosive
substances and/or articles
3
3
15
QU10.2
Design the explosives display
3
3
5
QU13.2
Work effectively in a team involved in activities for
explosive substances and/or articles
2
4
6
At the end of work with the awarding organisation, we had confirmed designs for 3 qualifications:
•
Level 4 Diploma in The use of explosives in the entertainment industry - HSQ code: Q10-C2-
003.
•
Level 3 Diploma in The use of explosives in the entertainment industry - HSQ code: Q10-D3-
002.
•
Level 2 Certificate in The use of explosives in the entertainment industry - HSQ code: Q10-
D4-001.
In parallel with the design of the qualifications, Event Horizon continued with its aim of becoming an
HSQ Qualifications Centre and will be able to offer these
qualifications
:
MAPPING THE EXISTING COURSES TO THE STANDARDS
…and identifying the gaps between training and the new qualifications
ANNEX B - 8
Once we had our accepted qualifications designs we could get around to mapping the existing
courses to not only the Standards but also to the qualifications. It made sense to wait until this stage
because of the previously mentioned issue of volume of Standards included in the Role Profiles.
Using the process outlined in the ‘
Step-by-Step Guide to Implementing Occupational Standards
’,
which is available as a separate document, we followed the ‘Which document is available? …
Programme …’ route shown in the flow chart.
Having the course material, course design and a copy of the Candidate Pack for each of the
qualifications meant that we could relatively easily identify which Units and elements of units should
be included in the course and which would be better suited to being assessed using Witness
Testimony as evidence.
It was always our intention that gaining a vocational qualification should be achievable in the least
complex way possible, within the governance and assurance requirements of the awarding
organisation and the BECTU grading system. Given the hazardous nature of working with explosives
and pyrotechnics on a film or television stage or a theatre stage or outdoor re-enactment arena, we
considered that evidence should come from two main sources: the theory and practical parts of the
course we were designing and from witness testimony in the form of signed-off entries in
candidates’ logbooks. The latter requirement led to us offering briefings to potential ‘witnesses’, i.e.
SFX Supervisors and Senior Technicians, on the value of their comments and the VARCS
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qualities it
should embody.
At the beginning of the process, our starting materials were:
32
Valid; Authentic; Reliable; Current; Sufficient
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