Main navigation

National Occupational Standards

National Occupational Standards (NOS) are definitions of competence that can be applied to job roles or occupations. NOS are set by standard setting organisations, like Government Skills and Sector Skills Councils, who work with employers, employees and other stakeholders (such as training providers) from across the sector. Standards are used by all of these groups to aid skills development.

Written as statements of competence, NOS capture the performance, behaviours and knowledge and understanding that an individual must demonstrate o be considered competent to carry out a particular task.

They can be a useful tool for describing the skills that employers need in their workforce and the skills an individual needs to have or gain to be successful in their job.

NOS help with a wide range of skills development and HR-related activities. Some examples of how they can be used are to:

• describe good practice in particular areas of work
• provide managers with a tool for a wide variety of workforce management and quality control tasks, such as training needs analysis or appraisal
• offer a framework for training and development
• form the basis of qualifications in the Qualifications and Credit Framework (QCF) and the Scottish Credit and Qualifications framework (SCQF)

For information about NOS and Government Skills, contact Nicole Suter

Consultation on standards

So that Government Skills can properly represent the interests of employers, it needs to consult with them on a regular basis. Government Skills also consults with employees and other key stakeholders with an interest in the sector. This is particularly the case as with the development of standards and qualifications.

Approved Standards

Government Skills currently has four suites of standards approved by the UK Commission for Employment and Skills for use in the sector.

These are for PSG, Policy delivery and the Operational Delivery professions.

National Occupational Standards for Policy Delivery and Operational Delivery are on the UK Standards website [external website]

Development of NOS for Civil Contingencies

Do you work in Civil Contingencies? If so standards are now available for you.

For more information, visit the Skills for Justice website – Civil Contingencies NOS [external website]