HN Review and HN Next Gen
Martin Boyle gave one of the keynotes at last week’s Computing Conference. Martin spoke about the next generation of HN qualifications — or HN Next Gen as the project is called. You can see his presentation here.
The current “direction of travel” (see slide 13 in his presentation) involves:
- HNCs consisting of 120 SCQF points (15 SQA credits) and HND’s 240 (30 SQA credits)
- common core in all HN awards of “21st Century skills” (see slide 8)
- “bigger” units – perhaps up to four SQA credits (32 SCQF points)
- reduced assessment, involving more project and practical work
- doing away with outcome by outcome assessment.
Martin has been consulting with stakeholders about the sorts of changes needed for some time, and he’s coming to the end of that phase. He’s about to “prototype” these ideas in two phases. Computing will be involved in the second phase, commencing August.
This means that the current HN Review will be delayed for a short time so that we can incorporate the new design rules for HN awards. The alternative (proceeding with the review now then retro-fitting the required changes) doesn’t make sense. That doesn’t mean that we will sit on our hands for six months. We’re currently creating a Qualification Development Team (QDT) and I plan to convene a first meeting of the QDT in the not too distant future. While there are some things that we can’t yet determine (such as the exact nature of the 21st Century skills) we can identify the vocational skills that should be included in the refreshed HNs.
Please contact Martin if you want to know more about HN Next Gen or contact Caitlin if you want to know more about the review of HN Computing awards (or volunteer to join the QDT).
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[…] month I posted something about how HN Next Gen would affect the on-going review of HN Computing awards. At that time, I […]
Interesting that no colleges in the North are in the ‘Specific College’ section, and only one college in the East (Edinburgh) is there. Not exactly inclusive of all of Scotland is it?