Course Booking Notification
When you enrol onto one of our courses you will receive a course booking notification from either our central office or from the training partner that is arranging your course. The course booking notification will tell you the date and time of your course and information about the particular course you are attending. If you do not receive a booking notification for your course please report it to our central office at support@thefitsfoundation.org. You can see a sample copy of a course booking notification here.
Equal Opportunities Policy
The FITS Foundation wholeheartedly supports the principle of equal opportunities and diversity, both in its employment practices and in its activities. As a self-funded not-for-profit organisation with a remit to provide strategic advice to the education sector, we recognise that our equal opportunities and diversity profile should provide an exemplar for others in the field. We must ensure that we are able to recruit, develop and retain a workforce that is able to deliver high standards of work and who are representative of both the local and national populations. We must ensure that we are free from both direct and indirect discrimination in our employment policies, procedures and practices. We strive to go beyond compliance and be at the forefront of embracing equality and diversity. We want to promote best practice and to be sensitive to the specific needs of our employees, stakeholders and their communities. Our equal opportunities and diversity policy is designed to meet these requirements.
The FITS Foundation does not discriminate on grounds of sex, creed, colour or disability of any sort. The FITS Foundation will ensure that candidates requiring special facilities to accommodate a disability are provided with those facilities. The SQA Solar online examination system allows visually impaired candidates to adjust the colours and size of font on the screen to suit their requirements.
If anyone has special requirements please make them known to our training partner or the FITS central office when booking onto a course.
Our full equal opportunities policy can be viewed and/or downloaded here.
Malpractice Policy
The FITS Foundation operates a malpractice policy and is committed to record and report to SQA any deliberate falsification of records and/or use of unfair means during examinations in order to obtain a qualification or certificate. A copy of the Malpractice Policy is held by the trainer and available for inspection by candidates. There is also a copy available for download from The FITS Foundation website here.
Conflict of Interest Policy
High standards of objectivity, integrity, fairness and honesty must characterise The FITS Foundation’s relationship with learners and their employers. The FITS Foundation will ensure that no member of staff will be provided with the opportunity to gain any personal or financial benefit that would lead to the integrity of the awards being compromised. The FITS Foundation’s Policies and Procedures will be designed to maintain The FITS Foundation’s reputation for integrity and protect staff from accusations of partiality in commercial and personal matters.
A copy of this policy is held by the trainer and available on The FITS Foundation website for inspection or download.
Complaints & Grievances Policy
The FITS Foundation operates a complaints and grievance procedure to follow-up on any complaints raised during one of their courses. In the first instance all complaints or grievances should be reported to the trainer at the time and he/she will record them on the trainer report/invigilator notes and forward them to The FITS Foundation Quality Manager for further action.
A copy of The FITS Foundation complaints and grievance policy is held by the trainer and available on The FITS Foundation website for inspection or download.
Appeals Procedure
The FITS Foundation operates a process for managing appeals against examination results by the candidate. Candidates that disagree with an assessment result should report the matter as soon as possible following the assessment (but within 3 working days maximum) either to the course invigilator at the time or to the FITS Foundation central office and discuss the problem. There then follows a set process for dealing with the appeal which is outlined in detail on this appeals procedure document. A form has been designed specifically for reporting your appeal which can be downloaded here.
Data Retention
The FITS Foundation collects the minimum amount of candidate data required by the awarding body (SQA) to allow them to sit the FITS/SQA online examination. This data is transmitted to The FITS Foundation in a password protected document to ensure privacy whilst in transit. All candidate data is held within The FITS Foundation offices on a password protected server. All passwords used by The FITS Foundation are changed at least annually or immediately it is identified that a password has been compromised. Candidate data is held in an archive file following completion of the examination and destroyed after 5 years.
Candidate Induction
Candidates enroling on one of our courses are provided with joining instructions and asked if they have any special learning or dietary requirements. They are also informed that they are required to do some pre-course study which is why we request our training partners to provide us with candidate names at least 7 days prior to the start of the course in order for our central office to send out study material to the candidate.
At the start of the course all candidates are reminded of our processes and procedures and given the opportunity to read through our policies.
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