We are pleased to announce that The Field Division at Plus Four Market Research Limited has successfully achieved accreditation from the Recruiter Accreditation Scheme (RAS).
The Recruiter Accreditation Scheme (RAS) has been developed by the Market Research Society (MRS) and the AQR (Association for Qualitative Research) to raise the profile and status of recruiters, and to enable clients to recognise quality providers in the industry, such as Plus Four.
It is a training and accreditation scheme that recognises the knowledge, skills and competence of professional recruiters.
The training was undertaken by ‘The Field Division’ joint Field Managers Chris Melotte and Matt Faulkner. Despite having 30+ years of experience in the industry between them, Chris and Matt enjoyed the ‘Introduction to Qualitative Market and Social Research’ and completing the modules with topics including:
Knowledge was tested at the end of each Module, with an overall exam at the end of the course. Upon passing, Chris said “although these are things we do as part of our work daily at The Field Division, it was interesting to take a step back and study in-depth areas of the recruitment process such as pre-group tasks, recruitment techniques, social media etiquette, SEG classifications, and GDPR. GDPR is an especially complex topic because of associated legal complexities and regular updates. I am very pleased to have passed!”
After gaining a Distinction, Matt gave the following overview: “The training for the RAS scheme was a mixture of applying my knowledge of Market Research and GDPR and learning the finer details of key procedures – it was a bit like the driving theory test most of it you know, but some of the finer details need revising. A lot of training within Market research previously has been on the spot learning and recruiters gaining knowledge through a lot of good years of service - which isn’t a bad thing. However, with no alignment of rules and regulations, there is always the potential for discrepancies. By applying the RAS accreditation scheme, recruiters are all now working under the same umbrella which is a positive thing for the industry, and most importantly for our clients and their research.”
Managing Director Peter Allan commented ‘Throughout 50 years 'in the field' and in the completion of 22,000+ research projects, ‘The Field Division’ at Plus Four has worked hard to build a reputation for the high standard of our project management, and the quality of our fieldwork and participant recruitment, so we are delighted to have achieved the Accreditation from the MRS and AQR. Combined with our own strict in-house quality measures, this will further assure our clients that we are qualified recruiter practitioners, working to legal and Code requirements. Congratulations go to our Field Managers Chris Melotte and Matt Faulkner for successfully completing and passing the training, and for the work they have put into helping ‘The Field Division’ achieve RAS status.”
