What are National Occupational Standards?

The National Occupational Standards are the UK benchmarks of performance. They provide the means for assessing performance in a job: they are work-related statements of the ability, knowledge, understanding and experience that an individual should have to carry out key tasks effectively. Anyone in an occupation covered by the Standards can use them to determine what level of competence is required and more importantly whether their own performance meets that industry expectation. Originally developed mainly for book publishing the standards are currently being reviewed for use by journal publishers.