The Framers Forum

FRAMER TRAINING COURSE

Your assistance in Completing the Following Survey is Appreciated

Introduction:

For a number of years the Framing Support and Qualifications Committee(FSQC) formally the Framers Committee have been working towards producing a modular framing course. At the recent Court meeting (26Mar14) the Framer Training Course(FTC) was accepted as the Guild’s educational programme.

The FTC is a modular course at three levels; level one equates to a basic introduction to framing whilst level two leads towards the GCF certification. Level three is advanced level framing providing for expertise in particular areas of interest. This is one aspect of a dual track approach to the improvement of educational standards within the framing industry.

The second is the introduction of Continual Professional Development(CPD) for GCF. CPD is a fundamental part of being a professional and combined with ‘on the job learning’ in terms of workshops and seminars, helps to ensure ones competence over the course of a career.

It has long been an objective of the Guild to achieve national recognition for the GCF possibly at NVQ level 3 and to introduce a framing apprenticeship. To this end we have approached City and Guilds as an educational provider and they require an estimated number of candidates that might undertake framer training in one form or another. To this end and in order to move our application forward I would ask your assistance in completing the following survey. Even if you do not offer framing at present or think you have no current requirement for framer training and qualifications as the first set of questions will help us assess the size of the industry workforce. This will only take a couple of minutes of your time. The survey will close on Wednesday 30th April.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/RHMCYCD

Mal Reynolds GCF Adv
Chair FSQC

This actually gives me a reason to join, I know it may take a while to get going and implement, but if my membership fee's help it on it's way then I will sign up today.

The Framer Training Course is 75% complete up to level 2 the rest is just awaiting to check we have the correct format for City and Guilds. CPD is to be formally announced at the Awards Weekend in May and introduced sometime around the middle of the year. Any person can attend CPD but after introduction those successful GCFs will be required to gain a number of credits within a certain period of time - details to finalised shortly. Credits can be obtained by attending seminars, workshops, Making Picture Events, Branch Meetings etc. e.g Spring Fair type events/workshops similar to those this year.

As an example it is anticipated that future Awards Weekends will have a keynote industry speaker for seminars in the morning with continued workshops in the afternoon.

A dedicated Forum for details regarding FTC and CPD will be set up on the Guild's web site, open to all, hopefully after the Bank Holiday.

Mal Reynolds

I will do the survey for you now. Best of luck.

Just done the survey

Done the survey, easy and doesn't take long.

As one of the Guild's newest GCFs (along with hubby Trigger) we are really pleased to see the way the Guild is expanding the educational programme with CPD. We have also done the survey and hope that the talks with the City & Guilds progress well.

Just run through it, but as a retiree does not seem suitable to to complete. Shortly after retiring I thought that my knowledge as a 3D framer might be of value to start at least a basic understanding of the potential of 3D framing to an important industry that supports the interior decor market. One answer was to start a course on this subject would take 20 years to develop.

It seems hopeful that FATG are starting on an important strategy, having seen the infancy of training programmes started for agriculture in the 1960's and then self teaching myself into creating a range of products that was new to the interior decor market, seeing how others attempted to copy made me aware that many protocols for safety and quality can be missed by lack of knowledge.

Suppliers to an industry can often fail to see the importance of promoting the integrity of products and further development as this will increase the number of practitioners, who will be their customers.

Good for Picture Framing but there is a huge area to be developed before Framers really become all purpose framers.

Thanks to all those who have responded to our survey. Hopefully we shall be able to gauge the results later next week.

I mentioned that the Guild was to set up a dedicated CPD Forum on its web-site. This has gone live this lunchtime, it is open to all and we would welcome your thoughts on the CPD programme.

The link is as follows: http://www.fineart.co.uk/forum/cpdtalk-13.aspx

Many Thanks

Mal

It might just be me, but I tried to subscribe to the FATG forum to comment and can't for the life of me see how to do it?

You have to be logged in to reply or add a new thread - it's a bit tucked-away as is their 'frametalk' forum - there have been no replies or new topics yet.

Can you log in if your not a member?

span2iels wrote:I mentioned that the Guild was to set up a dedicated CPD Forum on its web-site. This has gone live this lunchtime, it is open to all and we would welcome your thoughts on the CPD programme

I think from what was said above that it's open to anyone but you have to register to comment. Can't check for non members as we are members but presume that's how it's been done.

Yes, there's an option to register, it doesn't say you have to be a member to do so but maybe you do, have you tried?

As a non-member I just registered with the website. The CPDTalk is an open forum and I did get as far as creating a comment but didn't post it. The other forum is restricted and indicated that I didn't have the right access.

Sorted now thanks for your help!

I hope that you have resolved the problems of getting onto the CPD Forum. I am certain that you do not have to be a member of the Guild to be able to comment. However, one does to gain access to the other Forums e.g. FrameTalk.

Please make your comments, we hope that this Forum will provide the opportunity for one to suggest CPD topics and to some extent how one would like the CPD Programme as a whole to develop. As far as I am concerned CPD is there to help us all.

Industry as a whole embraces CPD as a fundamental part of being a professional and along with ‘on the job learning’, it helps to ensure ones competence over the course of a career. As previously mentioned the Guild have every intention to make CPD interesting and an enjoyable learning experience.

In my view this is a new and exciting period for the Guild, its future direction as far as framers are concerned and as a result will raise the profile of a more professional framing industry.

We are giving you all the opportunity to have your say how it may develop.

The plan to introduce Continuing Professional Development was announced at the FATG AGM and was met with resounding approval from all those present.

For those who have not seen the CPD Flyer detailing the Guild's proposals please go to the FATG web-site, Quick links at the bottom of the page and click on CPDTalk. You do not have to be a member to view this page.

Mal Reynolds
FSQC Chair

Or just click this link http://www.fineart.co.uk/forum/cpdtalk-13.aspx