Alpha Parking is now working in partnership with City & Guilds to provide established training qualifications:
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Level 2 Parking Enforcement Officer
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Level 3 Notice Processing
The training landscape for parking enforcement officers and notice processing staff has been through a bit of an upheaval of late, but Alpha Parking will continue to operate alongside the internationally recognised education and training body, City & Guilds, to offer a full suite of parking qualifications.
Training provided by Alpha will continue to be part of the Qualifications and Credit Framework (QCF) and accredited by OfQual —this applies to both the Level 2 Award for Parking Enforcement Officers and the Level 3 Award for Notice Processors.
The critical point about our qualifications are the style of delivery and assessment. It is something that we have given much thought to, because we want the content of our courses to reflect the needs of the learner —and that means no superfluous, generic information — and to allow assessment to be as effective and reliable as possible. That is why our qualifications are knowledge based, taught over a number of days in the classroom. The tutor then has control over what is taught and can supervise the learning process of each individual on the course. Mirroring this approach is the assessment procedure. Learning is measured via a multiple-choice exam for each unit. Quick to administer, the question and answer examination will assess the individual’s understanding of the legal and operational requirements necessary to fulfil their roles. By learning the skills and reinforcing this learning through correctly answering questions, the staff are able to demonstrate their ability to carry out the job to a satisfactory standard, City & Guilds has maintained its long-term relationship with Alpha Parking because it is keen to continue to supply accredited specialist parking training. Having built up the suite of qualifications over the past five years, it makes little sense for the vocational training providers to waste all that knowledge and experience. The new environment means the parking industry has a useful practical choice as to which form of training and assessment suits them best.
Alpha Parking has worked hard to develop a suite of parking qualifications that are relevant to the industry and are of the necessary standard. Working with City & Guilds is a best fit for Alpha Parking because it is an internationally recognised brand, which has developed a specialist knowledge of the requirements of the parking sector. This matches Alpha Parking’s own aspirations to extend its training to other global markets, and to share knowledge, expertise and best practice with parking operators from other countries.
Alpha Parking’s qualifications are aware of the legislation, so they in turn can pass the relevant information on to their team members. The course has been designed so that it meets these needs.
“By putting staff on the course the council demonstrates that we believe in investing in staff development, an important morale boost at a time that local authorities are still feeling the squeeze.”
The five-day course, which will take place in a central London venue, is run by Alpha Parking. It includes an introduction to parking specific team leading, problem recognised and verified by Ofqual, and under the Alpha Parking and City & Guilds offering, assessment takes place in the classroom and comprises a multi-choice examination for each module. We firmly believe that the best way to train staff is to make sure they are given the knowledge they require while they are in the classroom. This means that we are certain that they are getting the skill and information that they need to do the best job possible. Then we test that knowledge. The parking operator and the general public can clearly see that the parking enforcement officers and notice processing staff are well-trained and have the level of knowledge appropriate for their field of operation. This is by far the most effective, most convenient and, importantly in these times, the most cost-effective way of delivering that knowledge.
Alpha Parking also offers a suite of City & Guilds-accredited training that covers all sectors of the industry and the training is available across all regions of the UK. We have total faith in our method of delivery and believe our classroom training and multi-choice exam assessment approach, combined with the City & Guilds brand, are a choice that should be offered to the parking industry.
We would also stress that we are quite prepared to talk to any other training provider wanting to offer the qualifications, but they must be a City & Guilds certified centre and they must have met all the criteria necessary to meet the standards that City & Guilds has set.
Alpha Parking also offers supervisor and management training aimed at local authority parking managers and team leaders, as well as Traffic Order training, Level 2 training for Parking Enforcement on Private Land, NVQs and training in the use of ParkMap software. Parking professionals taking any of these courses will reach the City & Guilds quality standards.