My wife and I run a Community Interest Company in Event Management.

Some years back I designed a course on how to party. It came second in the Times Education Supplement Award for Widening Participation and used for a conference by the Open College Network (OCN) on effective ways to tackle truancy.

Course units included:

DJ Mixing, Laser Lighting Show, Video Jockey Mixing, Street Dance, Backdrop Making, PA systems, Digital Sampling, Building 12volt Sound and Light, Stage Makeup, Costume Making

I believe it’s success was due to following factors:

• Trickle fed standalone courses of 30hrs, which continued as an ongoing auto enrol programme

• Practical, non-academic training which appealed to users who find themselves excluded from conventional education due to issues such as dyslexia, ADHD or personal social crisis

• Strong motivation to achieve as high recognition from peer group who see the delivery of their work, and wish to also be part of success

• Confidance growth as results are self evident and self managed gamification of accruing points from adding another unit to personal training programme

• Gradual awareness of how all pieces connect, and identifying a role can create within the structure

I want to expand on the above idea, and provide a qualification framework that enables a similar training experience in any aspect of Event Management, such as Outdoor Catering, Stewarding, Site Electrics, Waste Management, WiFi Communication Systems, Stage Production, Augmented Reality Graffiti Sculptures. You imagine it, and a unit could be developed that fits in with any aspect of holding an event.

The framework is aimed at community groups, Local Authorities and voluntary sector, who may wish to host an event for their own agenda such as outreach, public awareness, or engagement purposes, as well as established festivals and events that may wish to up-skill and provide training to own core crew.

An organisation would be able to pull down the course, and either run in-house or book artists to come in and deliver parts of.

The qualification would be with Open College Network (OCN), and the credits are recognised internationally, and can even be used for university entrance.

The cost of developing the qualification are:

Annual Subscription as a training provider £800

Creating a qualification framework £1,500

Writing and registering each new unit £300

The target of £3,500 would get this off the ground. Any more funds raised would go to registering more new units.

Once the qualification is created, we would not own it, and any training provider would be able to pull it down and deliver.