Synogenes.com

Some recent enquiries into the ITEC Reiki Diploma has turned up some interesting details. ITEC were asked about the unevidenced nature of this diploma course in which students were expected to take as fact notions such as chakras, healing energy, and auras, and to develop skills in "basic energy sensing".

ITEC it seems worked jointly with the Reiki Council to develop the course but didn't have much to do with the actual content. The course had to comply with the requirements of OFQUAL, but they too, it seems didn't have much to do with the content. As long as the course assessment seemed to meet the requirements, they didn't concern themselves too much with what was being assessed. So the trail went on to QCDA, the new incarnation of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority.

But they too didn't seem to have anything much to do with it, and so the trail lead to the Skills For Health organisation, another government body. It produced last year a document which reported on the provision of courses in the so-called alternative medicine professions. The document is remarkable in that it accepts unquestioningly spurious claims made by various groups of practitioners.

For example, it accepts the idea that craniosacral therapy has some basis in reality when it doesn't. It accepts the claims also of Reiki practitioners. It simply quotes them and then looks around to see if youngsters can get access to courses to give them qualifications.

By generating courses based on spurious content, unevidenced theories gain the currency of academic qualifications. The alt-med organisations simply need to generate the appropriate paperwork and show some evidence of assessing something, and they'll be able to jump through the appropriate hoops. No need to bother with evidence or demonstrating that the skills are actually real.

Candidates are supposed to be assessed on "basic energy sensing skills", which given that the energy is undetectable and unevidenced, is quite simply impossible. The course cannot meet the requirements of OFQUAL itself. So much for checking the standards.

But so far, no-one has yet explicitly said who actually checks the content of the syllabus but we can be reasonably sure it is not anyone who has had more than a fleeting acquaintance with scientific principles, nor any understanding of the need for evidence before making healing claims.

If that is really the case, then these qualifications are an embarrassing exposure of how corrupted the qualifications standards have become. If someone can get an ITEC Diploma based on invented energy sources and non-existent skills, then it won't be long before we see groups of devout fundamentalist Christians setting up their own Diploma in Faith Healing. Or how about an NVQ in Dowsing.

As if it is not enough of a mockery of those youngsters who work really hard for their A-levels and GCSEs, we should also remember that youngsters encouraged onto these courses are basing their future employment on at best delusional ideas, and at worst fraudulent practices. That's no way to treat our young people. Time to ask some hard questions!

Some recent enquiries into the ITEC Reiki Diploma have turned up some interesting details. ITEC were asked about the unevidenced nature of this diploma course in which students were expected to take as fact notions such as chakras, healing energy, and auras, and to develop skills in "basic energy sensing".

ITEC it seems worked jointly with the Reiki Council to develop the course but didn't have much to do with the actual content. The course had to comply with the requirements of OFQUAL, but they too, it seems didn't have much to do with the content. As long as the course assessment seemed to meet the requirements, they didn't concern themselves too much with what was being assessed. So the trail went on to QCDA, the new incarnation of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority.

But they too didn't seem to have anything much to do with it, and so the trail lead to the Skills For Health organisation, another government body. It produced last year a document which reported on the provision of courses in the so-called alternative medicine professions. The document is remarkable in that it accepts unquestioningly spurious claims made by various groups of practitioners.

For example, it accepts the idea that craniosacral therapy has some basis in reality when it doesn't. It accepts the claims also of Reiki practitioners. It simply quotes them and then looks around to see if youngsters can get access to courses to give them qualifications.

By generating courses based on spurious content, unevidenced theories gain the currency of academic qualifications. The alt-med organisations simply need to generate the appropriate paperwork and show some evidence of assessing something, and they'll be able to jump through the appropriate hoops. No need to bother with evidence or demonstrating that the skills are actually real.

Candidates are supposed to be assessed on "basic energy sensing skills", which given that the energy is undetectable and unevidenced, is quite simply impossible. The course cannot meet the requirements of OFQUAL itself. So much for checking the standards.

But so far, no-one has yet explicitly said who actually checks the content of the syllabus but we can be reasonably sure it is not anyone who has had more than a fleeting acquaintance with scientific principles, nor any understanding of the need for evidence before making healing claims.

If that is really the case, then these qualifications are an embarrassing exposure of how corrupted the qualifications standards have become. If someone can get an ITEC Diploma based on invented energy sources and non-existent skills, then it won't be long before we see groups of devout fundamentalist Christians setting up their own Diploma in Faith Healing. Or how about an NVQ in Dowsing?

As if it is not enough of a mockery of those youngsters who work really hard for their A-levels and GCSEs, we should also remember that youngsters encouraged onto these courses are basing their future employment on at best delusional ideas, and at worst fraudulent practices. That's no way to treat our young people. Time to ask some hard questions!