CiLT National Occupational Standards for Intercultural Working

Yesterday (26 February) was the Welsh launch of the new CiLT National Occupational Standards for Intercultural Working.

Background

The Standards describe best practice for intercultural working. They are intended as a quality benchmark.

They have been developed in response to a business need for these skills and were partly inspired by information in the CBI Education and Skills Survey 2008.

The standards are best practice guidelines. There is no intention for there to be any compulsion involved in the use and application of these.

The Standards

The standards are intended to be cross-sector. The six units can be used as individual stand-alone units or combined as relevant.

Unit 1: Core unit intended for anybody, from any country or culture, who is working with people from another country or culture

Unit 2: Building working relationships – useful for networking and partnership working in a cross-cultural/international context

Unit 3: HR issues – recruitment, promotion, etc. Intended to be helpful in strengthening diversity and equality policies and procedures

Unit 4: Managing a multicultural team

Unit 5: Managing delivery of a service to people from different countries or diverse cultures

Unit 6: Developing new markets with different countries or diverse cultures – deals with identifying the cultural and product/service expectations of people in new markets

Template Unit: Intended for use mainly by Sector Skills Councils to enable units to be combined with/embedded in other sector standards.

The Benefits

§ better communication between people of diverse cultures or different countries

§ mutually respectful and supportive working relations

§ more productive workforces

§ improved customer service

§ more effective international trade

§ strengthened diversity and equality policies and procedures

§ greater community cohesion

Next steps

The standards are reviewed every three years with a wide consultation process.

National Occupational Standards are used by awarding bodies as the basis for vocational qualifications. CiLT is now developing training and qualifications based on these standards.

Useful links

National Occupational Standards for Intercultural Working
National Occupational Standards for Languages
National Occupational Standards for Translation
National Occupational Standards for Interpretation

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[1] CiLT, the National Centre for Languages, is the national centre for expertise and the government-approved UK Standards Setting Body for languages and intercultural skills. CiLT Cymru was established in 2002 as part of the CILT network.

Welsh Assembly Government: Consultation on a Bioenergy Action Plan for Wales

The Welsh Assembly Government has issued a consultation on a Bioenergy Action Plan for Wales. The aim of the Action Plan is to secure the annual generation in Wales of at least 5 TwH of electricity and 2.5 TwH of usable heat energy from renewable biomass by 2020. Details of the consultation are available here.

Comments on the consultation should be sent to:

Alun James

Sustainable Energy & Industry Wales

Cathays Park

Cardiff

CF10 3NQ

or by e-mail to: energy@wales.gsi.gov.uk

Petition: Severn Bridge Tolls

A petition calling upon the National Assembly for Wales to urge the UK Government to do everything in its power to abolish the Severn Bridge tolls closes on 28th February 2009

More details on the petition are available here.

EU Monthly Labour Market Monitoring

The EU has today launched the first in a new series of monthly analyses to monitor the EU employment situation. It aims to present an update of the labour market situation and restructuring trends, set against a background of economic and sectoral developments.

This month's Monitor provides a special focus on developments in the larger Member States as well as an in-depth analysis of the automotive industry.

The EU press release giving more details is available here.

The monitoring reports are available here.

Disabled Access to Railways

A Statement of Opinion has been raised by representatives of all four political parties at the National Assembly for Wales calling upon the Welsh Assembly Government to work with Arriva Trains Wales to improve the accessibility of railway stations to disabled people.

The Statement of Opinion, raised by Jenny Randerson AM (Liberal Democrat), David Melding AM (Conservative), Anne Jones AM (Labour) and Bethan Jenkins AM (Plaid Cymru) notes that only 45% of railway stations in Wales have access for people in wheelchairs. It also notes that 83% of railway stations are unstaffed and that many disabled people are reluctant to use the railways for fear of being stranded at a station.

The full text of the Statement of Opinion is available here.

National Assembly for Wales calls for reduction in VAT on building repairs

After debating the Welsh Assembly Government consultation on Sustainable Homes: A National Housing Strategy for Wales, in Plenary session on Tuesday February 10th 2009, the National Assembly for Wales passed a motion that welcomed the consultation and called ".. on the Welsh Assembly Government to make representations to the UK government to reduce the rate of VAT on building repairs and improvement work to existing buildings".

Several bodies, including the Federation of Master Builders and the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, have argued that lowering the rate of VAT on repairs and improvement work would have several benefits in terms of improved housing and stimulation of the economy.

End of local business tax in France

Last Thursday (5 February) President Nicolas Sarkozy of France defended his handling of the economic crisis in France in a televised interview. He announced a pledge to scrap the French local business tax (taxe professionnelle) in 2010 in a bid to 'keep French firms competitive'.

The taxe professionnelle is a type of local business tax collected by departmental and regional councils in France. It is used to pay for local services, including Chambers of Commerce. Although the tax has no exact equivalent elsewhere in Europe, in the UK it can best be compared to non-domestic rates and is paid by all businesses whether or not they are subject to corporation tax. The tax has two bases: the rented value of property on the one hand, and equipment and movable assets, dedicated to production, on the other.

For some time a working party has been considering reform of the taxe professionnelle as a result of the disproportionate burden falling on certain sectors, particularly manufacturing. However, French local government is said to derive 45% of its income from the tax and often sees this as a guarantee of some independence from Paris. Many commentators suggest that without the taxe professionnelle, domestic rates in France are likely to be much higher. Medef, the Employers' Federation in France has welcomed the move, whilst the association of mayors and local councillors have called for immediate negotiations with the government to urgently redress the resulting shortfall for local authorities. President Sarkozy has evoked carbon tax as one possible solution in meeting this.

Carbon Dioxide Emissions in Wales

The Members' Reseach Service of the National Assembly for Wales has produced an update of its 2006 paper Carbon Dioxide Emissions in Wales. Together with a short synopsis on climate change and consideration of the policy framework the paper compares Welsh carbon dioxide emissions with other countries and provides information on per capita carbon dioxide emissions for each local authority in Wales.

The paper is available here.

Legislative Statement on the Proposed Welsh Language LCO

In yesterday's NAW Plenary Session, a statement was made on the Proposed Welsh Language Legislative Competence Order.

The full transcript of the session is now available here (link to NAW website)