The Framers Forum

It has come to my attention that there may be some confusion regarding the introduction of the Guild’s Continuing Professional Development(CPD) programme and who may or may not be included. I hope that this short note will clarify the situation, if not and one has further questions please use the CPD Forum on the Guild web-site for your questions.

The aim of CPD is to offer all framers the opportunity to improve their knowledge of framing techniques and materials through a series of verifiable and non-verifiable events.

The programme is open to all however, there are some restrictions in place for those who are not members of the Guild. The programme starts in Jan 2015 and all those who take the GCF from that date will also be required to join the CPD programme. The Guild Commended Framer will become the Guild Certified Framer and every two years the Certification will be renewed on the framer completing the required number of credits.

Any framer, Guild member or not may may attended any CPD event or undertake any part of the programme available to them - some events are restricted to Guild members only. Existing GCFs keep their existing qualification, there is no change, and they are welcome to take part in CPD. However, should they wish to fully embrace Certification they may change and would be required to join the scheme itself and become Guild Certified. Once this decision had been made there would be no reversion.

The official start of CPD is the Guild’s Award weekend in May 2015, a key industry speaker has been booked to give a seminar/presentation on the morning of 16th May and a workshop in the afternoon. Details will be announced in the October edition of ABT.

You seem to imply, Mal, that fellow members should not use the framers forum to ask you questions on this topic, or have I misunderstood?

I think the 'Fine Art Trade Guild' needs a Continuing Professional Development(CPD) programme not its framers.

So out of date and out of touch.

I do hope your enjoying your nice new expensive building.

Oh dear, it seems as though the record may be stuck on the same old theme perhaps one could change the record over and look to the future!

First, I am surprised that one who advertises himself as a “A member of the Fine Art Trade Guild specialising in Hand Finished, Sport Shirt Framing and Multi Aperture Mounts using FSC Wood.” does not wish to take advantage of CPD.

Further, I also note that whilst advertising as a member of the Guild, using their logo etc as promotional information it appears that this person may well not be a member of the Guild!!

John as we spoke yesterday.

I am happy for framers to pose questions on the FF. The reason I ask to go to the CPD Forum is that many of the questions my well be answered already; however, if they are not then I will answer them there because as you are aware not all Guild members watch the FF and may well miss out on some information.

Ok you must of picked that of my portfolio site which to be fair hasn't been updated for awhile (removing now). It does not state that any more on my main website nor any logos.

I was pointlessly a member for a few years.

haha I remember when I became a member of the guild and excitedly logged on the the guilds members only forum WOW that was a shock

I keep meaning to do a write up for my website 'why I'm not a member of the guild any more', I must get on to that.

Pssssttt (stage whisper) you better update your FB page as well

Back to the subject, sounds good, but sorry to say that I will not be doing it, far too long in the tooth and getting on a bit now

Can the CPD be tailored to the buisness aims/profile of individuals? Ie if a particular subject area is not part of thier buisness plan would sombody have to attend CPD events focusing on that subject in order to maintain thier CPD or risk loosing the 'qualification'?

there was talk of a city and guilds or nvq qualification is this still happening or are you sticking with the current meaningless certificate of competence?, if you are then it is less than useless to my business.

Alan

Please see the CPD Forum on the Guild web-site.

As for the latter question; this has been duly noted and filed in Box 13.

It was a serious question, maybe I asked the question in the wrong manner, sorry for the passive aggressiveness.

As we are an employer, is the current or future format of the qualification recognised at all (as an NVQ or city and Guilds) by anyone who may offer grants or help for training employees, if it is this would be of a great help towards training my staff and future staff and a great help to my business and like Thomas the tank engine very useful indeed, we have looked into membership of the guild but it did seem rather costly because we have more than one site, are a printer as well as framers and are looking into publishing - as each of these areas has it's own membership fee's the guild would need to be of a serious benefit to us to join.

Regards

Darren

Alan, this should take you to the right place:

http://www.fineart.co.uk/Forum/Thread/D ... readId=256

Useful link Jo... but it only really takes you to a page that's of no use to those on the forum - as most forum members aren't FATG members and the CPD articles are restricted pages.

I think CPD is a good thing and in fact FATG have done this for years through enlightened speakers at branch meetings encouraging lively discussions and involvement in subjects relevant to the professional development of framers. I'me not sure that formalising the process when you have to encourage that missing "membership" to rejoin is going to work. I think the FATG need to take a bit of a gamble and be far more open in their approach to how much they risk sharing with non members.

IFGLs questions about formal qualifications for apprentices is a relevant one - I am sure that many framers who may be contemplating taking on trainees may well see this as a valuable reason to join the FATG. It was my impression that the FATG membership was too small to make it worthwhile for the DoE or whoever supports these courses to fund them? Clarity on matters such as this do matter and will help many framers decide if they want to be involved. The link does nothing to answer the questions asked.

I have been considering the pros and cons of becoming a GCF, but now I would have to be certified, I'm not so sure. Why? Well, whenever I hear of someone becoming 'certified', I think of men in white coats and padded rooms

Furthermore, as I don't currently live in the UK, how would I join the CPD programme, and take part in verifiable events?

As my question remains unanswered should I take it as the qualification is not acceptable for training grants, apprenticeships and so on?

I wonder if the guild have fully thought this one through. The fact that the continued qualification of the framer is dependant upon regularly attending a series of verifiable and non verifiable events, could act as a significant deterent for many framers to even bother at all.

BTW, did I read somewhere that taking the qualification within a certain period of time was a requirement when joining the guild, or am I mistaken?

I don't know if it's the same now but when I (re) joined two or three years ago (and didn't renew this year for various reasons) framer members, by joining were supposed to be committed to taking the GCF test within 12 months. I was never told I had to take the test.

span2iels wrote:not all Guild members watch the FF and may well miss out on some information.

I'd say more guild members, whether also members of this forum or not, read this forum than any of the guild's, which are not really forums at all as in a stand-alone/hosted site like this, they're more message boards within a main website and very little goes on.

Mark, the qualification isn't dependent wholly on attending events. Credits will also be gained for various different things and that is where the verifiable and non verifiable bits come in. It could be downloading an article and answering questions from the Guild website for example. And no doubt more things will be advertised as time goes on and after the official launch.

One of the criticisms of the GCF award in the past was that it was static, ie someone who passed it 20 years ago didn't need to update their techniques or working practices to take into account new methods or ideas. This has been raised as a criticism on this Forum amongst other places many times. Introducing CPD, as many other professions have, is therefore surely a step in the right direction to answer that criticism and make it a more relevant and up to date qualification? It isn't the only answer and I know not all questions are answered by it, particularly about Government recognition etc, but it is at least a first step.

Even if customers don't always know what GCF means or stands for until we explain it, the recognition of the idea of CPD is fairly widespread amongst the general population and can therefore surely be a good thing to advertise being a part of.

Tudor Rose wrote:the recognition of the idea of CPD is fairly widespread amongst the general population and can therefore surely be a good thing to advertise being a part of.

That's a good point!

I'll awnswer my own question then.

http://www.fineart.co.uk/Forum/Thread/D ... readId=245