Make sure that you teach the right thing

Me and my team receive regular enquiries about changes to qualifications, often asking what has changed and when. We received one this morning. We always give the same advice: check the Group Award Specification (GAS) for each qualification before you offer it.

A GAS is produced for every new (or revised) qualification. It contains essential information about the structure of the award (including award codes and unit codes), advice about delivery, and information for learners. You will find the GAS for each qualification on the qualification’s web page If you don’t do that, you’re in danger of delivering the wrong units, which would jeopardise learners’ certification.

Similarly, you should ensure that you’re using the current versions of the unit specifications. We change the codes of units when we make significant changes, but tweaks often go uncoded (we use the same code but note changes in version control). So, before you begin teaching, download the GAS and unit specifications.

SQA provides a web service to tell you about changes to our web pages, which you might find useful.

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