Member Article

NBSL advisers accredited by standards body SFEDI

When seeking advice of any sort it is often difficult to know whether the information provided will be accurate, helpful, positive and delivered by someone who knows what they are talking about. So how do you choose who to use when seeking business advice and coaching? Quality marks indicate that organisations meet certain specified standards and in many fields these also extend to the competence of individuals.

Professional standards bodies exist to accredit advisers and to ensure that they meet certain standards of knowledge and competence, and anyone seeking business coaching or assistance with obtaining funding for leadership and management training through NBSL (Northumberland Business Service Ltd) can rest assured that their advisers all meet the highest standards.

All NBSL advisers have recently obtained or renewed their ILM/SFEDI Business Adviser accreditation with SFEDI (the UK Sector Skills body for Enterprise) which is tasked with standards setting for the enterprise sector. ILM is the acronym for the Institute of Leadership and Management and SFEDI stands for ‘Small Firms Enterprise Development Initiative’.

The SFEDI organisation sets the national occupational standards for people delivering support in the field of enterprise and also provides awards and qualifications in business support to underpin the knowledge that advisers gain through experience. SFEDI maintains a searchable directory of accredited advisers throughout the country and requires them to renew their accreditation every two years.

NBSL’s team of advisers have now all successfully completed the extensive process which required them to be observed by an independent assessor on several occasions whilst coaching or advising clients. They also had to demonstrate that their knowledge and experience met the prescribed standards and that they undergo regular training to reinforce their continuing professional development.

Several of NBSL’s Advisers also completed an additional SFEDI enterprise coaching award which required the completion of four written projects supported by a portfolio of evidence to demonstrate their practical application of knowledge when working with clients.

As many of NBSL’s clients come to them through word of mouth recommendations from other satisfied customers they already know how professional and competent their advisers are. So accreditation simply serves to reinforce on a formal basis the NBSL philosophy that ‘only the best will do’ when providing advice and support to clients, but its good to know that the Sector Skills body thinks that NBSL advisers are ‘gold standard’ too!

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Phil Langton .