Welcome back

I know that schools and colleges have recently returned from the Summer holiday. I hope that you had a nice break from the pressures of teaching and feel ready for the new term. The SQA team has been busy over the Summer.

A number of National Units in Cyber Security were published in mid-July. These Units form part of the suite of NPAs that were validated in late July, and made available to centres a short time later. The Units have also been added to the National Certificate in Computing with Digital Media.

A new NPA in Computer Refurbishment was also made available at the end of July. This is a new, simple NPA that focuses on computer repair and refurbishment skills.

In early August I announced the development of two new HNCs: HNC Computer Science and HNC Data Analytics. We’ll be working with the University of Strathclyde and a number of Glasgow colleges on this development.

Digital Passport was opened up to all centres, having been piloted last session. We’ve had a lot of interest in this qualification. The component Units have been added to the National Certificate awards so you can deliver them stand-alone, as part of the NPA or as part of the NC. The review of PC Passport made progress. We’re currently writing the Units for the new version.

And, finally, we announced the launch event for Cyber Security and an online support group.

One other important piece of news is worth noting. There is a new Senior External Verifier for the subject area.

I took the advantage of the relative peace during the Summer to update the qualification portfolio. This diagram is definitely worth checking out since it shows current, new and revised qualifications.

There are a number of on-going developments that I will say more about in a future post.

Bobby Published 17/08/2015