NPA Cyber Security validation event

The validation event for the NPAs in Cyber Security took place yesterday in Glasgow. I am delighted to report that the award was validated, subject to a couple of conditions and recommendations.

The purpose of validation is for fresh eyes to check the proposed qualification. Members of the Validation Panel must have had no involvement in the qualification development. A validation event is a meeting of peers (it’s not an inspection of a proposed award) with the aim of making it as good as possible.

Yesterday’s Validation Panel was convened by Professor Bill Buchanan of Napier University. Members included representatives of Police Scotland, employers, colleges, schools and SQA. The Qualification Development Team included representatives of schools, universities, and employers. It was a constructive meeting. We had positive discussions about the aims of the awards, their contents, and progression.

I was pleased that our proposals were essentially accepted. The structure of the awards will be unchanged. The conditions relate to the component Units (these have still to be finalised) and the title of the awards (we wanted to use slightly non-standard titles). The recommendations were clarifications in the Group Awards Specification.

The conditions and recommendations will not take long to address. The group award and the associated Units will be available to centres from 1 August. Please contact Helen if you have any questions about these new qualifications or check the FAQ for the qualification.

Bobby Published 26/06/2015