National Occupational Standards (NOS)
National Occupational Standards (NOS) are statements of the standards of performance individuals must achieve when carrying out functions in the workplace, together with specifications of the underpinning knowledge and understanding.
About NOS
NOS are developed for employers by employers through the relevant supplier
- NOS describe what an individual needs to do, know and understand in order to carry out a particular job role or function
- NOS are National because they can be used in every part of the UK where the functions are carried out
- NOS are Occupational because they describe the performance required of an individual when carrying out functions in the workplace, i.e. in their occupation (as a plumber, police officer, production engineer etc)
- NOS are Standards because they are statements of effective performance which have been agreed by a representative sample of employers and other key stakeholders and approved by the UK NOS Panel
Please see our NOS presentation (PPTX, 1.0 Mb)
NOS Strategy
UKCES worked with a wide range of stakeholders to develop and build consensus on the NOS Strategy. The four governments of the UK approved the NOS Strategy for 2010-20 at the end of March 2010 and agreed that the UK Commission should work with stakeholders in 2010/11 to prototype and pilot a number of aspects and evaluate these by the end of March 2011, to enable the full roll out of the Strategy from April 2011. This has resulted in Version 2 of the NOS Strategy and associated documents being published in June 2011.
NOS can be accessed through the NOS Database
