I’ve been at SQA for a year and a half, having previously worked for a local authority for 18 years in an employer engagement position. I account manage 90 centres and I’m in the unique position of having been in my customer’s shoes – in my previous job I was the SQA Coordinator for our centre and assessed and verified a range of SQA qualifications. Having been an SQA customer previously, I understand the challenges my customers can face so I hope I can provide relevant quality advice and support on a range of issues.
I cover a large geographic area – as far south as Whithorn and as far west as Arran which involves travelling through some amazing scenery to visit centres. Part of my role involves understanding the regional skills assessments for each area and working closely with my centres to plug gaps and ultimately develop pathways for learner progression.
My team and I also promote opportunities for national developments when a centre identifies a gap in our provision. Two of the schools in my area, Dalbeattie and Castle Douglas identified a gap in computing provision for their pupils. SQA colleagues worked closely with the schools to submit a Development Opportunity Form, which was approved. The qualification will be available to all Scottish centres in the future. Find out more information on our computing blog.
Providing quality advice is so important in my role – many customers will request an initial meeting to talk about delivering a certain qualification, but that first conversation is key and often presents opportunities they wouldn’t have initially thought of. A lot of customers don’t know about SQA Customised Awards and how they can create their own qualification based on their in-house training; I have two centres currently going through this process.
In order to provide quality advice to my customers, I rely on the strong relationships I have built with colleagues in SQA. I get lots of questions and I don’t have the answer to everything, so a big part of my role is finding the right person to speak to within the business and getting back to my customer in a timely manner. I wouldn’t be able to do my job without all the help I receive behind the scenes.
I’m looking forward to continuing my SQA journey and helping many more centres. If you’d like to discuss your organisation becoming an SQA Approved Centre to deliver our huge range of qualifications, please email businessdevelopment@sqa.org.uk
