Hilary’s team have recently carried out a survey to gather feedback on the changes proposed to the units and assessments under review and will be starting work on these revisions shortly. They are looking for practitioners to work with them to write, vet and provide additional support to their qualifications. If you are interested in getting involved in this review please complete and return the attached Expression of Interest form to Hilary, or get in touch with her if you…
The PDA Data Science development at SCQF levels 7, 8 and 9 is well underway and validation will take place at the end of the month. We are now in a position to share more details with you regarding this development, such as the aims, frameworks and units. We would be interested in your views, which you can provide through the consultation form below: https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=2LTEKxW0bE-LuCwphdcXHznh9ZB__vhLoPF9ACVVFIxUMzVXSEZVMkpMTUVUMDJGT0xVNVFaMlRGNSQlQCN0PWcu You will be able to access a ‘Qualification summary’ document once you are in the…
We are currently developing HNCD Technologies in Business (the revised HNCD Information Technology). As part of the development process, we consult with stakeholders about the nature and content of the award. I would appreciate if you could take 5 -10 minutes to complete this short questionnaire about the new qualification. https://goo.gl/forms/o1bELhs2tH7bvyCC3 Please feel free to share this survey with your networks. Thank you in anticipation of your assistance.
We’ve had a busy week, kicking off a number of developments. In addition to the NPAs that I recently mentioned, me and Emma also met with the consultants responsible for scoping NC Computer Games Development and NPA Computer Games Development. This means that, at this time, we have commenced the review of the following non-advanced awards: NPA Computer Games Development (SCQF Levels 4, 5 and 6) NC Computer Games Development (SCQF Levels 5 and 6) NPA Software Development (SCQF Level…
We have commenced the reviews of some NPAs. These are: NPA Software Development (SCQF Level 4) NPA Digital Media Basics (SCQF Level 4) NPA Digital Media Editing (SCQF Level 5) NPA Web Design Fundamentals (SCQF Level 5) Two school teachers are leading these reviews. These awards are particularly popular in Scottish schools. At this time, we are scoping the changes required for each award. We hope to have the scoping completed by the end of April. Scoping doesn’t actually involve…
The HND Computer Science GG7D 16 was last developed in 2012 and is now due to review. As Bobby mentioned in his previous post, we will start the scoping exercise first before the full review process. More information about the scoping remit can be found here. We are seeking to recruit a practitioner to undertake this work. Please contact me if you are interested or have any query.
Further to Bobby’s post last week, we are currently looking for volunteers to scope the qualifications listed below. In order to keep providing you with good and sound qualifications, we aim to review our qualifications at least every five years, although some of the ones listed are overdue. Hence the importance of scoping before proceeding with the review. Among other things, we would like to find out what works and what doesn’t, what could be improved and how. Qualification SCQF level NPA Computer…
I’m delighted to let you know that HNC Data Analytics is now validated. The validation took place a few months ago so it’s taken some time to address the conditions and recommendations – but we’re there now. Big data is a new, and growing, field and we’re delighted to be the first UK awarding body to have a specialised qualification in this field. This new qualification was designed in partnership with the University of Strathclyde and some Glasgow colleges. The award,…
I was delighted to discover this morning that the conditions and recommendations imposed by the Validation Panel at the recent validation event have now been addressed and the award is now validated. That was great news. The development started in May last year, so it’s taken a while but I think that the final form of the qualification looks great. The QDT has made several improvements to the existing qualification – including a new approach to mathematics – and generally…
I’m delighted to tell you that the revised HNC/D Interactive Media is now validated. The conditions, which were imposed at the recent validation event, have now been lifted and the revised awards are now approved (as of yesterday). The revised qualifications have new titles, which are: HNC Digital Design & Web Development (which replaces HNC Interactive Media) HND Digital Design & Development (which replaces HND Interactive Media) HND Web Development (which replaces HND Interactive Media). As you can see, there are…
The validation event for the revised HNC/D Interactive Media took place yesterday afternoon in central Glasgow. The purpose of validations is to review a new or updated qualification to ensure that the qualification meets its aims. The validation panel included representatives of colleges, universities and employers, none of whom had been involved in developing the qualification. A subset of the Qualification Development Team (QDT) answered the questions. Yesterday’s validation event went well. It’s great to see these events in action,…
I got good news this morning. PC Passport has been validated. A number of conditions were placed on the award at the recent validation event, and it has taken time to address these conditions but I’m delighted to let you know that the revised award is now validated. Emma is now busy “operationalising” the new award. That means adding codes, publishing the Group Award Specification, and creating a subject page. This will all be done in the next week or two. In the…
Now that Emma has joined the team, we are able to progress some developments that were put on hold. As previously mentioned, Helen is the Lead Officer (LO) for advanced qualifications (SCQF Levels 7-10) and Emma is the LO for non-advanced (SCQF Levels 3-6). Helen gave me an update this afternoon on how the following developments are progressing. HNC Computer Science/HNC Data Analysis HNC/D Computer Games Development HNC/D Information Technology HNC/D Interactive Media. Most of these developments are at the…
SQA was the first awarding body in the UK to introduce a qualification in online safety when we produced a National Unit entitled Internet Safety in 2007. The Unit quickly became popular in Scottish schools and colleges. Some schools required every pupil to undertake it early in their secondary education (typically S2). The original Unit was updated in 2012 and the current version is used within the Award in Internet Safety, which became available at the same time. Such is the…
The QDT for the review of HNC/D Interactive Media met yesterday afternoon for the fourth time. The previous meeting was held last January. The purpose of the meeting was to review progress and agree future tasks and timescales. I recently met with the Lead Developer and we felt it was a good time for the QDT to meet again. The QDT is proposing new titles for the awards: HNC Digital Design & Web Development HND Web Development HND Digital Development. This development has…
The core Units within the revised NPAs in PC Passport SCQF Levels 4, 5 and 6 have now been published on the SQA website. There are nine new Units in total. These are: HA6J 44 Web Apps: Presentations (SCQF Level 4) HA6J 45 Web Apps: Presentations (SCQF Level 5) HA6J 46 Web Apps: Presentations (SCQF Level 6) HA6L 44 Web Apps: Spreadsheets (SCQF Level 4) HA6L 45 Web Apps: Spreadsheets (SCQF Level 5) HA6L 46 Web Apps: Spreadsheets (SCQF Level 6) HA6M 44 Web Apps: Word Processing (SCQF Level 4) HA6M 45 Web Apps: Word Processing (SCQF Level 5) HA6M 46 Web…
This development commenced in August and since then we’ve made good progress. I met with the Lead Developer (Denise Doyle of Glasgow City College) yesterday afternoon to discuss recent progress. The prime aim of the development is to create two awards that articulate with the University of Strathclyde’s Digital Academy but they will be national qualifications and, therefore, must serve a wider audience. So they are being developed in the normal way — with a Qualification Development Team (QDT) and…
Helen and I met with the Lead Developer (Fiona Murnin of New College Lanarkshire) this afternoon to discuss progress with this development. It’s at the same stage as the HNC/D Computer Games Development review – the team are busy writing the new and revised units. This is a larger development than Computer Games, with 27 new or revised units being written. Some are almost complete and some are at an early stage. I’ve asked for all of the units to…
One of the conditions arising from the recent validation event for the new PDA in Software Development was to finalise the component Units. We’ve been working on them since then and they’re almost ready for publishing. The PDA (at each level) consists of three, double credit, Units in Analysis & Design, Implementation & Testing, and a Project unit. SQA units are written by practitioners, checked by vetters, and validated by SQA officers so they go through a rigorous quality assurance…
Helen and I met with the Lead Developer for this award today. The aim of the meeting was to review progress. This development is progressing well. The development team are currently writing the Group Award Specification (GAS) and the Unit Specifications. The aims, structures, articulations and unit briefs have all been completed. The revised awards will contain a number (11 in total) of new or revised Units including two new Maths units. It is being proposed that the role of Maths…
