The end of the NSSF
The three year DTI funded programme, the National Standardization Strategic Framework (NSSF) came to an end in March this year. The NSSF’s objective was to secure a step change in the understanding and use of standards and standardization to the benefit of business, government and society. Four key areas were targeted; Engagement, Committees, Education, International and Innovation, read on to find out how.
Engagement
Award-winning PR and marketing activities reached a combined total of over 200 million people. A study showed that standards contribute £2.5 billion to the UK economy, and 13% of growth in labour productivity is attributable to the British Standards portfolio. A campaign to engage with SMEs resulted in 14000 hard copies of publications distributed and 2,568 PDFs downloaded. Relationship building took place at Trade Association Forums, Government events and there a new Standards Information Service website was created.
Committees
Activities to refresh technical committees included tailored sector events and presence at trade shows and conferences. The online eLearning infrastructure was implemented with two eLearning modules, BS 0 and Eurocodes, enabling remote access training facilities for committee members.
Education
New web content was added to the existing award-winning education website resulting in total hits up by 49% on the previous year. Educational resources from age seven to post Graduates were produced along with an education brochure and mailers.
International
A series of events to promote the new construction codes, Eurocodes, took place in China, Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore and Hong Kong. Joint co-operation agreements were signed with international standards bodies and relationship building activities took place in China and India.
Innovation
Keeping in line with emerging technologies in the UK key standardisation strategies were developed in key areas such as ICT and IT Service Management, Sustainability, Biometrics and Photovoltaics.
