An advanced professional qualification for trainers Available to Purchase

Towards the end of 1976 the Training Services Agency appointed a Training of Trainers Committee to advise on this important issue. It met for the first time on 2 November 1976 and is required to report within two years. We informed readers about this new development in our issue of January 1977 where the terms of reference and the names of the members of the Committee are set out on page 7. Our present author, at that time Chief Training Officer, National Health Service, is a member of that Committee, whose members were chosen for the personal contributions they could make rather than for the organisations they represent. Since that date Duncan Smith has retired and is now very active in a private capacity as consultant; he remains a member of the Committee. He strongly holds the view that there is a need for a high level qualification for trainers and he has presented a paper to the committee arguing this case. Such a qualification would be an entirely new departure, and it appeared to us that trainers ought to know about what is being proposed and is under active consideration in their profession. The views of trainers on this matter are important; after all, we are preaching the gospel of participation. If trainers have views they wish to represent, they should write to us and we will see that they are passed on to the appropriate quarters.