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Code of Conduct NRTO

TSTC is a member of the Dutch Association for Training and Education (NRTO), the industry association for Training and Education. As a member, we adhere to the associated code of conduct, which can be read below. This provides you with an additional guarantee of quality training and transparent services.

Preamble

This code of conduct applies to the membership of the NRTO of entrepreneurs who enter into an agreement with companies, regardless of their legal form (business), for providing training and/or developing and administering exams. Training is understood to mean any form, regardless of duration, of education, training, course, and/or instruction, both distance education and face-to-face education. Exams are understood to mean any form of assessment of knowledge, insight, attitude, and skills of a candidate, who must deliver a number of performances based on assignments provided to him, regarding a coherent set of learning areas, on the basis of which this candidate can be awarded a certificate, taking into account certain performance requirements and decision rules, from which certain rights or powers can be derived. The behavior of members must withstand public scrutiny in all actions and omissions, or within the framework of the objectives of the NRTO association. A code of conduct can serve as a business card for the industry. As an association of entrepreneurs in private training, education, and examination, we adhere to the general principles of proper education, derived from the general principles of proper governance, respectively 'good corporate governance'. Our members conform to these principles/rules and thus to these norms and values (also referred to as a code of conduct). These principles include a number of procedural elements (right of defense, impartiality) but also a number of substantive elements (honesty, transparency, correctness of motivation).

The significance of the code of conduct also lies in how it is monitored whether practice is set up and operates in accordance with these principles. To this end, a quality enforcement committee has been established. The board is responsible for the composition of the quality enforcement committee and the diligence that must be exercised in this regard. The working method of the NRTO in this is included in the internal regulations. The enforcement procedure can be found as an annex to this document.

The usability of the code of conduct must be demonstrated in practice. If the code of conduct does not contain terms to reprimand activities that may be deemed contrary to the spirit of this code, this will be submitted to the quality enforcement committee of the NRTO, and a proposal for supplementation or amendment of the code of conduct may be made to the general members' meeting. External organizations tasked with supervisory duties may also make proposals for improvement or tightening; these proposals can also lead to adjustments to the code of conduct through the quality enforcement committee. The entrepreneur is responsible for the quality of (the procurement of) the products provided by her (or for the services provided by freelancers). The entrepreneur will formulate (quality) requirements for procurement in accordance with the provisions of the code of conduct, without creating any form of authority relationship with the supplier of these products or services. The existence of an authority relationship cannot be concluded from the application of this code of conduct, neither by the involved teachers, nor by the entrepreneur, nor by third parties. The independent position of freelance teachers is not affected by this.

If a binding (complaints) regulation prescribed by the government is in place, the relevant provisions will prevail over those of this code of conduct. The code will be placed on the agenda for evaluation at the general members' meeting every year; constructive criticism, complaints received by the quality enforcement committee, or obligations that the NRTO enters into with third parties will be included in this evaluation. The code is offered to new members for signature upon their membership application. Current members are asked to sign the code or indicate when they believe they can endorse this code. Members are given a maximum of one more year to sign the code, subject to the assessment of the quality enforcement committee.

I. Introduction

I. Introduction

1.1. At the Dutch Council for Training and Education, the legal entities affiliated are those mentioned in the statutes, which are broadly engaged in providing good education, training, and/or examination (hereinafter: entrepreneur).

1.2. If one or more employees of an entrepreneur violate the behavioral rules below, this violation will be regarded as a violation of the entrepreneur in accordance with 4.10. This means that it does not matter whether the involved employee(s) is/are individually a member of a professional organization, for which behavioral rules also apply to him/her/them. In these cases, the NRTO behavioral rules apply, unless a complainant explicitly wishes to hold the employee accountable based on the rules applicable to him/her from his/her professional organization, without prejudice to private law actions.

II. Objective

2. The code of conduct aims to determine the behavior of the entrepreneur in social interactions, particularly towards his clients and his fellow NRTO entrepreneurs, all in accordance with article 6.2 of the statutes.

III. Definitions

3.1. An entrepreneur is an entrepreneur who is a member of the NRTO and meets the criteria set by the NRTO for its members. Entrepreneurs carry out their practice at their own expense and risk for the benefit of their clients, such as companies, the government, or non-profit organizations.
3.2. A client is a business, regardless of its legal form, with whom the contract for the services of the entrepreneur has been concluded.
3.3. A complainant is a client or an NRTO entrepreneur who wishes to file a complaint regarding this code of conduct about an NRTO entrepreneur or a person who performs work under their responsibility.
3.4. An assignment executor is a person who either has an employment relationship with an entrepreneur or carries out assignments for the entrepreneur as a freelancer or otherwise.

IV. Code of Conduct

General
4.1. A contractor adheres to the law, the articles of association, and the internal regulations of the NRTO in their services and to this code of conduct, which is part of these internal regulations.
4.2. A contractor refrains from anything that may damage the reputation of the NRTO in any way.
4.3. Basic responsibility towards the client
4.3.1. Professionalism
The contractor will act professionally towards the client, meaning with the application of all qualitative expertise, as further elaborated in 4.3.3.
4.3.2. Independence: 
The contractor will avoid allowing any interests other than those of the assignment execution itself to play a role in the relationship with the client, in order to safeguard their independent position towards the client. This means that the existence of secondary interests of a contractor or of the involved trainers of a moral, legal, and/or financial-economic nature, which may influence the course of a planned training process and/or examination trajectory, brings the obligation to either refuse the relevant assignment or to present the possible secondary interest for accepting the assignment to the client and/or fellow NRTO contractors.
4.3.3. Obligation regarding the quality of the services
4.3.3.1. The contractor commits to deploy their knowledge, experience, and work capacity as effectively as possible in the assignment. Each assignment will be executed under the ultimate responsibility of the contractor's management.
4.3.3.2. The contractor only accepts those assignments for which they possess the qualifications. The employees of the contractor to be deployed in an assignment must be able to work effectively on that assignment through their knowledge, experience, and personal qualities.
4.3.3.3. The client will be made clear through a written agreement (offer, contract) what can be expected from the contractor in the specific assignment situation.
4.3.4. Carefulness and confidentiality
4.3.4.1. The contractor will exercise the care that can reasonably be expected regarding the use of information provided or made known to them in the training relationship.
4.3.4.2. In general, it applies that information that has a confidential nature and/or whose confidential nature must be understood as such and for which source citation is necessary, will only be used if the interest of the assignment execution requires it. When passing on that information, care will be taken to ensure that it cannot be traced back to the source if this could have adverse consequences.
4.3.4.3. Data obtained in a confidential manner from employees of the client, where source citation is not necessary, will only be released to third parties if the involved information provider has given prior consent.
4.3.4.4. The contractor does not provide judgments about employees of the client from the training and/or examination process, unless the training and/or examination process aims to arrive at a judgment about the participants in that training and/or examination process. In that case, the participants must be explicitly informed in advance of the intention(s) of the relevant training and/or examination process and the standards on which the said judgment is based. Participants in such a training and/or examination process must be able to review that judgment in advance as well as the grounds on which this judgment is based. Participants must be given the opportunity to discuss with the trainer/responsible examination official before the judgment, i.e., the exam result is reported to the client.
4.3.4.5. The contractor consults with the client whether participants of a training trajectory who request it can receive a named and dated certificate of participation.
4.3.5. Competing assignments
If activities of a strategic nature, which may reasonably be expected to create a conflict of interest at a strategic level, are performed for a competitor of the (potential) client, the contractor will inform this (potential) client.
4.3.6. Information provision and advertising
A contractor only associates their name with the services provided or to be provided in a manner that does not harm the reputation of the NRTO and the affiliated contractors.
The information provided through promotional materials, study guides, and on the website must be accurate and informative. This means that, if applicable, both the status of the diplomas, certificates, and testimonials, as well as the status of the corresponding examination trajectory must be accurately represented, as well as the quality provisions of the industry association for private training and education (NRTO):

  • Unambiguous description of the type of training/diploma; for example, and if relevant:
    • CROHO registration (the register of formal higher education programs); specifically:
  • government-recognized bachelor or master
  • date of new accreditation
    • elsewhere recognized bachelor or master (source citation)
    • CREBO registration (the register of formal vocational education programs)
    • Other registry mention, for example, from an industry
    • Source/organization from which the civil effect is derived (company training; internal vocational training)
    • Form and nature of the possibly associated examination trajectory

4.3.7. Result of the assignment
The contractor will strive to achieve the result stated to the client to the best of their ability.
4.4. Mutual agreement
4.4.1. Written mutual agreement
Before accepting the assignment, the contractor ensures that there is a written mutual agreement between the client and the contractor regarding the content and execution conditions of the assignment. This is shaped by the general terms and conditions of profession and business of the NRTO. The contractor must at least agree with the client on where the copyrights lie in the specific case.
4.4.2. Establishment of mutual agreement
This mutual agreement is established because, on the one hand, the contractor sufficiently gathers the necessary information and, on the other hand, the client has provided all essential information for the setup and execution of the assignment to the best of their knowledge. Based on this, both the client and the contractor can form a sufficient picture of the training and/or examination issue, the scope and approach of the training and/or examination trajectory, and the intended results thereof.
4.4.3. Preliminary research
If a preliminary study precedes the mutual agreement with the client, then the conditions of this preliminary study must be agreed upon with the client.
4.4.4. Content of mutual agreement
In the mutual agreement regarding the execution conditions, agreements are made where necessary about:

  • the determination of the target group;
  • conditions for participation, such as voluntary participation;
  • the determination of the learning needs;
  • the subject of training and/or examination to be used;
  • the examination trajectory possibly linked to the relevant training;
  • the method of working;
  • the materials and/or technical aids to be used;
  • the reality value regarding the training and/or examination expectations;
  • the choice of trainers and/or examination officials to be deployed by the contractor and the client and the designation of a possible project leader;
  • the role of the trainer(s) and/or examination officials;
  • an indication of the duration of the training and/or examination trajectory and any phasing;
  • the manner in which the training and/or examination trajectory is evaluated;
  • any debriefing;
  • the cost estimate;
  • costs of training and/or examination materials;
  • travel and accommodation costs of the trainer and/or examination officials;
  • extra costs for training and/or examination outside of usual working days;
  • costs for accommodation and facilities during the training and/or examination such as refreshments, etc., and the division of responsibilities for organizing this;
  • the charging of offer costs;
  • the payment and cancellation arrangements;
  • provisions regarding force majeure situations;
  • the ownership and copyright of training and/or examination materials including copyright;
  • the desired or necessary aftercare.

The aforementioned list is not exhaustive. Matters not mentioned but in line with this subject can of course be arranged by the client and the contractor in consultation.
4.4.5. Changed circumstances
If new facts or circumstances arise during the execution of the assignment that would undermine the originally reached mutual agreement, then discussions will be held between the client and the contractor to make further contractual arrangements.
4.4.6. Cooperation of the client
The contractor makes it sufficiently clear to the employees involved in the assignment what is expected of them.
4.4.7. Information on progress
The contractor will keep the client informed of the progress of their work. The contractor must provide insight into the methods applied in the various phases of the training and/or examination process if requested.
4.4.8. Documentation
The contractor keeps documentation of the assignments they have carried out, also with a view to possible accountability afterwards. The contractor ensures that archival materials cannot be misused.
4.5. Compensation
4.5.1. The contractor will charge a fee for assignments that is in accordance with the services rendered and the accepted responsibilities. Specifically, the fee is determined based on the amount of work and costs spent on the assignment.
4.5.2. Given the professional interest of the contractor and the associated relationship between intellectual performance and product, the contractor preferably determines the price based on this and does not calculate fees – also not as ancillary income – derived from cost savings, profit increases, or any other results achieved with the assignment; for assignments under the condition "no improvement, no payment," clear agreements are made between the client and the contractor on how the result is measured. For the same reasons, the contractor preferably does not negotiate or accept a fee or other forms of compensation that carry the character of a commission, monetary compensation based on licenses being excluded.
4.6. Relationship with fellow NRTO contractors
4.6.1. Written agreements
The contractor makes written agreements with fellow NRTO contractors regarding each other's contributions and responsibilities when collaborating on an assignment.
4.6.2. Possible conflict
If the contractor may reasonably expect that an assignment from a client, for whom another contractor is already working, will lead to a conflict between both contractors, they will inform both the client and the other contractor of these expectations. In consultation with the client, a solution will be reached, whereby the interest of the client will prevail.
4.6.3. Prohibition on using and copying each other's productions
A contractor will strictly refrain from using and copying products of fellow NRTO contractors unless prior written permission has been granted. This obligation applies to all personnel, including personnel working on a freelance basis for the contractor. All of this will be done in accordance with applicable copyright laws.
4.6.4. Fair play principle
The contractor will not undertake activities in their recruitment efforts for new assignments with the aim of withholding the same assignment from another contractor based on negative qualifications of the other contractor.
4.6.5. Evaluation of another contractor's work
The contractor refrains from evaluating the work of another NRTO contractor for the same client unless permission has been granted after mutual consultation.
4.6.5. Employment of personnel
If NRTO contractors employ each other's personnel, the respective managements will hold collegial discussions after the employment contract is established, based on which a responsible transition of assignment executors from the contractor is ensured. In doing so, the interests of the client, each other's interests, and/or non-compete clauses will be taken into account. In any case, they refrain from using products of the former employer and from taking client files from the former employer unless written permission has been granted.
4.7. Responsibility for employees
The management of the contractor is responsible for ensuring that their employees or those working under their responsibility in the field of training adhere to these codes of conduct.
4.8. Client personnel
The contractor does not take the initiative to offer a person employed by a client to join them or another, except after prior consultation with the client. The contractor prioritizes the interests of the client in this regard.
4.9 Assignment evaluation
A contractor must have and work with internal or external evaluations of assignment executors, if applicable.
4.10. Complaints procedure
In case of non-compliance with one or more of the above codes of conduct, a contractor may be held accountable by fellow NRTO contractors and/or by the complainant and/or by the client for their actions or omissions before the quality assurance committee regarding compliance with the code of conduct of profession and business in accordance with the provisions of Article II.2 of the internal regulations of the NRTO.

The complaints procedure is described in the internal regulations of the NRTO and can be requested through the secretariat.

Source: https://www.nrto.nl/kwaliteit/gedragscode/