As you may know, we are currently reviewing PC Passport. The development is making good progress. We create a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) for new or revised awards. Here is the FAQ for PC Passport. It can be viewed here. The FAQ will be updated from time to time so that it contains the latest information about the development. Contact Helen for more information about PC Passport.
As you will have read in a previous blog posting, we have been busy developing two new HN units in the area of Big Data at SCQF Level 7 and Data Science at SCQF Level 8. Both units are now complete and available for download via the SQA website. I am currently liaising with the Qualification Support Team (QST) to establish which frameworks the units should be part of and once this has been decided, they will be added as optional…
The Qualification Development Team (QDT) for the NPA in Cyber Security met for the first time yesterday afternoon in the Grand Central Hotel in Glasgow. There has been a lot of interest in this development since it was first announced and there was an excellent turn-out at the meeting, with representatives of schools, colleges, universities and employers in attendance. After I explained the qualification development process, and the role of the QDT, we got down to business. We had a wide-ranging…
The UK government published a report yesterday on the need to improve digital skills. The House of Lords Select Committee on Digital Skills published a report entitled Make or Break: The UK’s Digital Future. A BBC article summarises the main findings and recommendations, which include: the need to ensure everyone leaves school with basic digital literacy the need to attract more women into computing the need to improve intermediate and high-end digital skills more emphasis on digital skills within Modern…
I previously mentioned that the QDT for this award met for the first time last week. I have now created a FAQ for the revised award. You can read (and download) it here or simply scroll the embedded version below. It’s early days in this development but this FAQ will be updated as our thoughts solidify so please keep an eye on it in the coming weeks and months. By the end of the development, it will contain all the…
I mentioned previously that we were about to review the NPA in Digital Literacy, which was first introduced in 2007. The first meeting of the Qualification Development Team (QDT) met yesterday. It was a good meeting. We discussed the strengths and weaknesses of the current award, the likely demographics of the revised award, and the knowledge and skills needed within the new qualification. The QDT decided to retain the current title on the basis that there is a strong focus…
Following the announcement by the Deputy First Minister last week about the new qualifications in Cyber Security, Holyrood Magazine ran an article on the project yesterday.
The Deputy First Minister, John Swinney, announced the development of a new suite of qualifications in cyber security at yesterday’s Cyber Security 2015 event, held in Edinburgh. SQA will be developing a number of National Progression Awards in this area at SCQF Levels 4, 5 and 6. It’s an exciting development. It will be the first qualification of its kind (aimed at school pupils) in Europe. The hope is that it will engender an interest in computer science among young…
The Heads of Computing event took place on Friday at the Stirling Highland Hotel. This annual event has taken place for over 20 years now and is an important date in the team’s calendar. It went well. The agenda this year, I thought, was a particularly good mix of stuff-you-need-to-know and interesting presentations about such things as the future of assessment and cyber security. My own presentation provided an update on qualifications (a standing item on the agenda) plus a…
