ASIAN COMMUNITY GROUP ACHIEVES MATRIX STANDARD
(3 December 2004)

The Community Advice Centre, a project of the Bangladesh Youth League (BYL) in Luton has achieved the nationally recognised matrix Standard for its delivery of information, advice and guidance services to the regional Bangladeshi and general community. To achieve the matrix Standard, the Community Advice Centre had to ensure that the services that it provided matched the standards required by the quality framework. One such project sees the Community Advice Centre running a foreign language version of the national Foundation Certificate in Food Hygiene.

The team had to prove that it could deliver services with the same levels of professionalism of a college or any other learning provider. It presented a sound business plan, demonstrated how it would adhere to equal opportunities and other legal requirements and was required to show how it would keep accurate and appropriate records and even provide advice racks!

The Community Advice Centre predominantly offers the local community advice on benefits and immigration issues, but it also works with other learning providers in the region to deliver courses specific to the requirements of Luton's Asian community.

This course was established after the Centre recognised that many of the community's so called Indian restaurants were staffed by Bengalis, who did not speak English well and would stand a far greater chance of passing the certificate if they could learn it in their own language. The Advice Centre arranged for this to happen by developing a Sylheti (most commonly spoken language of Bengali community in Luton) version of the existing course.

ABOUT THE BANGLADESH YOUTH LEAGUE

The Bangladesh Youth League (BYL) was established over 25 years ago. The BYL operates from the Centre for Youth & Community Development (CYCD). The BYL is an organisation which works in partnership with local authorities, other voluntary organisations, the public and private sectors of industry and, education, training, community health and welfare in order to provide services and improve opportunities in the community.

ABOUT THE MATRIX QUALITY STANDARD

The matrix Standard is the outcome-based quality framework for all organisations delivering information, advice and guidance services in an employer or client context. The matrix Standard is highly adaptable to a range of organisational settings, regardless of size, from banks and high street stores to regional community and voluntary organisations.

The matrix Standard complements other quality and inspection systems, such as Investors in People, ISO 9000, PQASSO, the EFQM Excellence Model and the Charter Mark Standard. The matrix Standard is maintained and promoted by ENTO on behalf of the DfES. The matrix Standard Assessment and Accreditation process is managed by EMQC on behalf of the DfES.

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