TrevorGreenfield

The main issue though Ben is that you need to have money in the bank on reserve to cover the costs of closing it down should it fail. I know that one of the other charities in the education space has to keep £250,000 in reserve. I think the amount is probably in proportion to your membership size but you do still have to keep reserve money behind you that you would need to get in place up-front. Trevor

I am very interested to read all of your comments here and agree totally with your views Ephelyon and those of the other contributors. I was told that there was a thread on this topic and have only just managed to find it. This has been a frustration of mine since Becta were abolished. I have been planning to form a professional association that will do just what you are suggesting that includes FITS but lots of the other stuff that Becta used to cover and a lot more as well. I have done all of the preaparatory work with solicitors to form a charitable organisation that would initially be called "The Association for ICT Support in Education" that would eventually become "The Institute for ICT Support in Education". (ITSED) The problem I have is one of funding to move it forward. To become a charity I understand that you need to have quite substantial financial resources behind you to get approval from the Charities Commission. To become an Institute or Institution requires Central Government approval which would only be possible after it was running and proved that there was a need for it. The FITS Foundation, like just about all of the other similar organisations, receive no Government funding now. In addition the current coalition seem to have no interest in funding very much to do with technology in education. I am at a conference tomorrow that is aimed at Strengthening Our Tecnician Workforce and intend to try to get my point across about the need for this Association and funding for it and technician training in general. If any of you know of any sources of funding that may help get this going please let me know. I am happy to look at working with other organisations including commercial organisations like Microsoft since there is unlikely to be Government funding for it unless attitudes change. I will update this post with the outcome of tomorrow's conference and look forward to your comments. Trevor

The FITS online course, although run through the Open University does not carry any credits. Students are recommended to take the FITS practitioner exam to gain an NVQ equivalent qualification. The pilot starts on 24th January and will have a facilitator attached to each cohort who will lead the training. Depending on the take-up for the course there could be several cohorts of up to 30 people who will each have their own facilitator and discussion forum. The cost of the course is £195 and the examination fee (which is booked on the FITS website) is £197. The course fee does not include the hardcopy reference manual that face-to-face course attendees get but these can be ordered from the FITS website. At the end of the pilot phase, at the end of March, Vital and The FITS Foundation will evaluate how the course went and decide on whether and how to run further online courses. At this stage it will help us to get some indication from you guys whether an online course is preferable to a face-to-face one. I have been told by several technicians that getting time out of school is one of the biggest difficulties they face when requesting permission to take our courses. We want to provide training in the most convenient way and rely on input from you to guide us. Trevor Greenfield The FITS Foundation

Knowing from my discussions with people in the sector both here and in Australia and Norway how much people rely on the Becta website for advice and guidance, I am very concerned that it will soon be very much harder for people to find what they want and worse, what they are looking for will not be available. As Tony has said, some of what Becta was responsible for will be going to the DfE but decisions surounding what and when are being thought through. I'm happy for The FITS Foundation to host as much of this content as people feel they need regular access to. I just need input from the community to get an indication of what you think. I've created a post on our site ** News Update ** | The FITS Foundation asking for comments. I've also created a new forum where people can post comments. Please let me know what you all think about this. Trevor Greenfield Chief Executive The FITS Foundation

The popularity of FITS as the standard for service management in education continues to grow. Recently a group of people from the Norwegian Centre for ICT in Education visited the FITS offices in Leamington Spa to train as trainers for the FITS Practitioner course. All 4 course participants passed the Practitioner examination and are now working with us to get the foundations in place to begin rolling out FITS training throughout Norway during 2011. It is very satisfying to know that the many benefits that FITS provides are welcomed in educational establishments everywhere. Trevor Greenfield Chief Executive The FITS Foundation

I'm delighted to report that last week we awarded our first passes on both courses to Max Mulliner, Network Team Lead for Canyons School District - Utah. He visited us here in the UK to undertake training on both courses to become our first US trainer, sat the exams and passed both. Trevor Greenfield Technical Director The FITS Foundation

A big thank you to Edugeek from me too for inviting me along to update you guys on where we are with FITS. I'd also like to thank all of those attendees that came over to see me at my table for more information. Life has been a bit hectic, to say the least, since the Becta announcement but happy to reinforce the message that although Becta may be going, we at The FITS Foundation are very much still here. Trevor Greenfield The FITS Foundation

SQA have taken a lot longer than we expected to get the certificates agreed and sent out but I understand from them that they have all been sent out now. I certainly received my certificate last week having sat the exam myself to test the system out. If anyone still hasn't received a certificate can you please reply here or go to the FITS website and submit a comment through our contact form and I'll get it sorted immediately. (I can't add an email address yet because I don't have enough posts on here). Trevor Greenfield Technical Director The FITS Foundation