faqs about national occupational standards

Find the answers to your NOS-related questions, or contact us if you have another question.

How can I use NOS?

NOS can be used in a number of ways to improve individual and organisational performance. Such as:

• Identify professional development needs
• Design recruitment and selection procedures
• Design job descriptions, advertisements and interview questions
• Design induction programmes and information packs
• Carry out appraisals
• Make training programmes more relevant to people's needs
• Help with strategic planning
• Develop resources that are benchmarked to nationally recognised best practice
• Contribute evidence to the organisation's quality systems

Where do I start?

The first thing it to identify which standards are relevant to your organisation and for individuals within your organisation. A housing charity that works with those with mental illness may find the following suites of NOS useful: Management of Volunteers, Fundraising, Special Needs Housing Advice, Guidance and Advocacy, and Counseling. They might also find generic NOS for administration, IT and management and leadership relevant to them.

Secondly, you need to work with staff and volunteers within your organisation to identify which standards contain units describing their jobs. It is likely that different units will be needed to cover all aspects of a role: for example, someone responsible for managing a team of volunteers will find much of what they do in the NOS for Management of Volunteers, but may also use some of the units within the NOS for Mental Health and Counseling.

Are the NOS compulsory?

No, but they are recommended good practice.