The Next Generation of Higher National (NextGen: HN) Certificates and Diplomas in Television have been validated. The awards formally finished their pilot and are now ready for delivery, which was decided after a validation panel meeting on Monday 29 April. I was delighted about this achievement, and I’m struck by many things as we look ahead.
The NextGen: HN Television qualifications hit the mark: the HNC has got two large 5 credit units, enabling meaningful learning and assessment across key areas of television programme production and television technical production. The qualification is project based and focuses on professional competencies, as well as academic and technical knowledge and skills. The validation panel praised this approach, noting that screen skills will become widely referenced in mainstream education.
Values and vision can feel intangible when reduced to words on a page. However, they are brought to life in the people you work with through collaboration, alongside the willingness to innovate and meet challenges together. Personally, I feel that’s when you realise the power of values and vision. The professional goodwill, respect, commitment, knowledge and drive in this sector has been outstanding, and a great testament to the people and the subject. My colleagues and I continue the vision of creating qualifications that will support learners as they navigate multiple learning pathways and careers in our ever-changing world. We can only achieve our goals by working together. We’ve worked alongside unit writers and vetters, qualification design teams, university and industry stakeholders, and our external quality assurers. Everyone played a vital part in moving this forward. The delivery teams from New College Lanarkshire, Edinburgh College and North East Scotland College have been pivotal, often leading the way. The pilot centres have been innovative and creative, and the dynamic teams have been a force for change across centres. TV colleagues in the sector were spearheading change before NextGen: HN was developed, but we’re happy to be supporting them in this positive development.
SQA has a huge network of people working to support the project – from meta-skills, quality assurance, learning for sustainability, digital, grading, editing, communications, project management, and operations. The scale of the project is ambitious as we are working to transform our ways of working, alongside the qualifications.
Looking to the future, we will continue to build upon peer support and exchange experience and knowledge between pilot centres and new delivery centres. We’ll be launching NextGen: HNC and HND Television in August 2024 and anticipate a huge celebration for this NextGen: HN first.
