NPA PC Passport – Supplementary Materials
As previously blogged, the PC Passport workbooks have been added to the SQA website. Additional supplementary materials will be added in the coming weeks containing worked examples and sample answers.
Women in STEM Conference
Last week I had the opportunity of attending the Women in STEM Conference 2018, which took place in London. It was a big event, with over 150 attendees (disappointingly, only a handful of male representatives) from a range of sectors, including education and industry. It was a very full day, with 12 speakers who gave interesting insights into the different approaches and initiatives being implemented across the country in order to attract more young females into STEM careers. Some of…
Recruitment of Additional QST Members
I’m currently organising the QST (Qualifications Support Team) meeting for late June 2018 in Glasgow (date and venue TBC). The QST meets once a year to discuss and support any improvements to the HN/NC group awards within the Computing/IT portfolio. The members of the QST are from colleges, schools and training providers and are a great way to let SQA know what support materials are needed to help centres deliver these awards. This is a voluntary position but travel expenses to…
Launch event for support materials for NPA Cyber Security
As regular readers will know, we’ve been developing teaching, learning and assessment material to support the NPA Cyber Security for some time. We recently completed draft versions of the materials and we’re currently piloting this material in 20 centres across Scotland. Once the pilot is complete, we will finalise the material and have a formal launch event on Tuesday, 19 June in Glasgow. The aim of the event is to let you see what’s available to help you deliver the…
NPA PC Passport
New Learning & Teaching Materials for the NPA PC Passport (SCQF Levels 4, 5 & 6) have been published on the SQA website. The Workbooks for Presentations, Spreadsheets and Word Processing can be found under the Qualification content and delivery tools tab, towards the bottom of the subject page. Each Workbook takes an integrated approach to learning and teaching. If you require any further information or have any questions, please contact me.
HNC Cyber Security validation event
The validation event for the new HNC Cyber Security was held on Friday in the Grand Central Hotel in Glasgow. The event was the culmination of a year of intense work to produce a new qualification in this important field. The purpose of validation is to scrutinise a new qualification by a panel of independent experts. The panel consisted of representatives of industry, education and SQA. The event went well. The proposed qualification was validated with a few conditions and…
Update: NPA Computers Games Development
A quick update from the previous blog post about the NPAs Computer Games Development (SCQF Levels 4, 5 & 6): The Group Award has now been validated along with the units. I’m currently in the process of operationalising it (unit coding, subject page, etc.) and it will be available to Centres within the next few weeks. The current award will finish on the 1st of August 2020. If you have any queries at all about this Award, please contact me.
HNC/D Digital Design and Web Development
The framework of the HNC/D Digital Design and Web Development ( GL7Y 15 and GL80 16) has now been updated to include four optional units: F8R6 34 Games Design Theory (1 HN Credit, SCQF level 7) HH3G 34 Games Design: Pitch a Treatment (1 HN Credit, SCQF level 7) F8R5 34 Games Development: Character Creation and Storytelling (1 HN Credit, SCQF level 7) F6BX 35 Narrative and Genre in Computer Games (2 HN Credits, SCQF level 8) The Group Award Specification for…
NC Computer Games Development – ASPs
The NC Computer Games Development was validated last Friday. For more information, please read the recent post on our blog regarding this validation event. We are now looking for volunteers to write the ASPs for the new/revised units. We will be developing ASPs for the following units: Code Unit title SCQF Level Credit value New/ Rev. Mand./ Opt. HY2F 45 Gameplay 5 6 Rev. M HY2D 45 Computer Games: Portfolio 5 6 New M HY2D 46 Computer Games: Portfolio 6 6…
HNC Cyber Security – Validation event
We are holding the validation event for the new HNC Cyber Security on Friday, 18th May 2018. We are still seeking volunteers to represent the following: employers, training centres and universities. More information about this development can be found via the FAQ or the blog. If you represent one of these sectors and are interested in joining the validation panel or have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact me.
National Certificate in Computer Games Development
The validation event for the revised NC Computer Games Development took place on Friday in the Grand Central Hotel in Glasgow. The purpose of validation events is for independent experts to check new (or revised) qualifications to make sure that they are fit for purpose. The validation panel comprised representatives of colleges, industry, training centres and SQA. The development team was represented by the Lead Developer, a college member of the QDT, Emma and me. I thought that it was…
Higher National units in cyber security
As part of the HNC Cyber Security development, we’ve produced a number of new Higher National units relating to the subject area. There are several new units including: Data Security Digital Forensics Case Studies Internet of Things Penetration Testing Scripting for Security Social Engineering. We also took the opportunity to update some existing units, such as Digital Forensics and Ethical Hacking. The current review of HND Computer Science has produced several new units and we plan to use two of…
About this Blog
The web log of the qualification team for Computing within SQA. Look out for news about Computing qualifications and related information.
