Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency

Last updated: 07 December 2009

BIS publish skills white paper: Skills for Growth
FAB/JCQ QCF Readiness Project
BIS audience based approach to communications
The Association of Learning Providers' provider liaison service is now up and running
Employer Engagement Programme
LSIS update
Country specific – Wales only
Country specific – Northern Ireland only

BIS publish skills white paper: Skills for Growth

In November 2009 Government published the National Skills Strategy 'Skills for Growth' which sets out the national skills priorities. The strategy is focused on helping people to achieve skills that match demands of modern work and that will open new opportunities and choices for individuals, as well as being essential for the country's future at the time of economic recovery and increasing competition in globalised knowledge economy.

Simplifying the range of vocational qualifications is a key step in improving employer and learner access to vocational qualifications and the Vocational Reform programme and implementation of the Qualifications and Credit Framework (QCF) is central both to the National Skills Strategy and the Skills Investment Strategy which sets out how government will invest in the Skills System during 2010/11).

The QCF readiness programme will continue as planned up until the end of March 2010 supporting the education sector to operate with in the QCF. We will be providing regular updates about transition plans post March in the following newsletters.

Please note that we will not be publishing a newsletter in January due to the Christmas break. Wishing you all a happy new year and a well deserved break.

For more information on the white paper visit the BIS website.

Watch the new QCF animated guide

This animated guide provides an overview of the key concepts of the Qualifications and Credit Framework. At the end of the animation you will be able to view some case studies about the benefits of the QCF.

Interactive guide to developing rules of combination

The QCF rules of combination interactive guide is a step by step tool to help stakeholders develop rules of combination. It acts as an introduction to the Guidelines for developing rules of combination and sets out the principles of for developing rules of combination in a way that is clear and easy to understand.

FAB/JCQ QCF readiness project

The Federation of Awarding Bodies (FAB) and the Joint Council for Qualifications' (JCQ) project continues to run introductory, open unit-writing and in-house unit-writing workshops and seminars on the preparation of rules of combination.

The final introductory workshops will take place in January 2010. The open and in-house unit-writing workshops will continue up to the end of March 2010. The workshops are all aimed at awarding organisations, however, invitations to the open unit-writing workshops will also go out to SSCs in December. Supplementary FAB/JCQ guidance, to complement the QCF regulatory arrangements and QCDA's own guidance, is being prepared on gaining recognition, unit-writing, deciding levels and credit values, and the designing rules of combination. The first of these guidance materials will be published in December to accompany the FAB/JCQ questions and answers launched at the FAB conference in November.

In December, additional support is being set up for awarding organisations, including a telephone call-back service. Awarding organisations will be able to book a call with a consultant to discuss the recognition process. In addition, a service where awarding organisations will be able to receive face-to-face feedback on a sample of up to five units has been trialled with three awarding organisations and these will be made available to all. 

Workshops or seminars on deciding levels and credit values and designing rules of combination are planned for January, February and March 2010. Awarding organisations are encouraged to register for these. The project team can be contacted through either the FAB or JCQ websites.

BIS audience based approach to communications

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) programme and project boards governing the work on vocational qualifications reform (VQR) have agreed that there are four audiences for VQR communications. Audience owners have been identified to ensure that all VQR communications across each of these audiences is coordinated.
 

Audience	Audience owner
Employers	Skillsmart Retail (for The Alliance of SSCs)
Learners	BIS
Learning providers	Learning and Skills (LSC)
Awarding organisations	FAB/JCQ

 
Building on work done over the summer, workshops have recently been held with delivery partners and stakeholders looking at communications for employers, learners and learning providers.  The workshops put together a full picture of current communications activities, identified duplications or gaps, and agreed key communications themes and messages for the different audiences.
 
Integrated communications plans have now been developed for employers, learners, and learning providers. These plans will be updated regularly. Messages for these audiences have also been developed reflecting what they need to know and when they need to know them. These messages will feed in to a second set of audience leaflets and other material which will be produced between January and March 2010. 
 
Current BIS leaflets are available from the BIS website. 

The Association of Learning Providers' provider liaison service is now up and running

The Association of Learning Providers' (ALP) provider liaison service is now up and running with its dedicated team of provider liaison managers (PLMs) visiting independent learning providers across the country. The purpose of these visits is to ensure that providers have a sound understanding of the new framework and are able to maximise the opportunities and benefits that QCF offers providers and the learners and employers they work with.
 
As part of the ALP provider visits the PLM will carry out a 'QCF health check' designed to help providers gauge where their organisation is against the Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency's (QCDA) QCF readiness indicators and to begin to identify what actions they need to take to ensure they are ready for the full implementation of the new framework by December 2010. 

All providers are directed towards to a variety of support services and resources offered by a range of agencies. PLMs actively encourage providers to utilise the Learning and Skills Information Service (LSIS) QCF Readiness Provider Support Programme's consultancy service to assist with business and strategic planning, help them identify suitable staff to put forward for the QCF champions' training programme and other staff development activities. The initial visit also allows the PLM to capture valuable feedback from providers, which is fed back directly to QCDA.
 
Academy Training is one provider that has made use of ALP's provider liaison service. Sarah Walker, quality manager said: 'I found the PLM visit really useful as it helped raise my understanding of the QCF and the readiness support programme. Following the visit I started to review our systems and processes and booked myself on to the QCF champions' training.'

Paul Eeles, ALP's Director of Sector Reforms and 14-19, was delighted with the initial results and said: 'The early indicators suggest that many of the larger providers are preparing well for the QCF so it will be interesting to contrast this with regional and smaller providers in the coming weeks. I hope organisations will take advantage of the free service that ALP's provider liaison managers can provide.'

ALP has established a dedicated QCF topics page on its website for all providers to access, containing up-to-date QCF related information including a downloadable newsletter.

If you would like to take advantage of ALP's provider liaison service, which is a free service available to all work-based learning providers, please contact Stella Turner on 07920 161685 or Simon Wilson on 07789408286.

Employer Engagement Programme

During the past month four new employer QCF qualifications from City College Norwich have been accredited and 14 new employers have been in contact about getting their training recognised. The QCF was also profiled at the recent CBI annual conference on the QCDA exhibition stand.

Following the recent publication of the Skills for Growth White Paper, the Employer Engagement Programme (EEP) remit will not be renewed after 31 March 2010. The EEP team are currently reviewing their portfolio of employers and are meeting with key stakeholders to determine the best way forward to guarantee support to employers post-March 2010.

LSIS update

QCF action planning and bespoke training    

Regional contacts from the LSIS QCF Readiness Provider Support Programme are visiting providers to help them to action plan for QCF implementation.

Whether you're just starting out on your QCF journey, or are further along with implementation, action planning provides a valuable opportunity to review how prepared you are and to plan your next steps. Your QCF regional contact will work with the key person responsible for implementation of the QCF within your organisation to review progress using the LSIS action planning tool. If support for staff development is identified as one of the areas for further development, LSIS will work with you individually or as part of a group of providers, to prepare bespoke training tailored to your needs.

Action planning and bespoke training are available to all LSC-funded providers. For further details contact the helpline on 0845 609 9001.

Limited places remaining for champions' training

There are limited places remaining on the QCF and Foundation Learning champions' training programmes. From December onwards there are four start dates and aspiring champions should register quickly to secure a place. Champions will be required to complete self-directed activities before the first of three training days, held at intervals across a three month period. Please note that eligibility criteria apply and that champions must be supported by a senior manager within their organisation. Full details are available for QCF at www.excellencegateway.org.uk/qcfprovidersupport and for Foundation Learning at www.excellencegateway.org.uk/foundationlearning.

Nominate now for the Adult Learners' Week Awards 2010! www.alw.org.uk/nominate

Hungarian delegates visit QCDA to learn about the QCF

On 2 November five representatives from the Hungarian Chamber of Small Businesses visited QCDA to learn more about he QCF and the UK Vocational Qualification Reform Programme. The visitors were:

Dr. János Fekete - managing director of a service company called SPIRIT(US)
Dr János Szilágyi - director of the Department of Vocational Education and Training, Hungarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (HCCI)
Ms Gabriella Laczky - senior program officer of Vocational Education and Training, HCCI
Ms Zsanett Gubicza - head of the Department of Vocational Education and Training, Regional Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Veszprém County
Mr Ferenc Pális - head of the Department of Vocational Education and Training, Regional Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Gy?r-Sopron-Moson County

During their visit, they also met representatives from BIS; the National Apprenticeship Service; the ALP; the Alliance of Sector Skills Councils; and the Association of Colleges.
Feedback from the visit was very positive.

Country specific - Wales only

Events

A series of events on the Credit and Qualifications Framework for Wales (CQFW) were held at venues across Wales in November, attracting around 700 delegates. The events were organised by the Department for Children, Education, Lifelong Learning and Skills (DCELLS), working in partnership with Colegau Cymru, NIACE Dysgu Cymru, the National Training Federation for Wales and awarding organisations and were attended by a wide range of stakeholders, from further education institutions, work-based learning providers, schools, SSCs, Careers Wales and awarding organisations.

A further workshop on the QCF Service Layer, aimed at awarding organisations that offer qualifications in Wales, will be held on 14 January in Cardiff.

Website information

Information of the QCF appears on the Welsh Assembly Government website, where the QCF is set within the context of the CQFW.

CQFW newsletter for Wales

A CQFW newsletter for Wales has been developed, which aims to keep stakeholders and partner organisations in Wales up to date with current developments within and around the CQFW. This newsletter can be accessed via the CQFW pages of the Welsh Assembly Government website.

Country specific - Northern Ireland only

The Northern Ireland (NI) VQRP board

Implementation of the VQR in NI is overseen by the NI vocational qualifications reform programme (VQRP) board, which provides a programme management and advisory function to the Department for Employment and Learning. The focus of the implementation activity is now on awareness-raising and capacity-building among key partners who will be delivering the programme in NI.

NI VQ Reform Capacity-Building Programme

The NI Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment (CCEA) and the Learning and Skills Development Agency (LSDA) are bringing a coordinated programme of support to providers (Colleges and Training Organisations) in Northern Ireland to ensure that these key delivery partners are prepared to operate within the QCF and to take full advantage of the opportunities it provides.   CCEA and LSDA have now agreed a schedule of interactive QCF introductory workshops and the content of these workshops.  The majority of workshops will take place from November 2009 - January 2010.

Combining knowledge and skills in competence-based vocational qualifications

On 13th November CCEA hosted a workshop to discuss a report commissioned by the Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency (QCDA) to research and produce guidance on combining knowledge and skills in competence based vocational qualifications within the Qualifications and Credit Framework (QCF).  The workshop was attended by a range of stakeholders in Northern Ireland operating within the QCF.  The outcomes of this workshop (along with others which QCDA are facilitating) will inform the guidance that will be produced by the end of March 2010 to support those writing units (particularly competence based units) for QCF qualifications.

QCF readiness baselining survey

Surveys were issued in September to gain a more detailed understanding of key stakeholders' needs.  The survey measured the effectiveness to date of the VQRP in terms of disseminating information about the QCF, raising knowledge and building capacity amongst awarding organisations, sector skills councils/standard setting bodies and learning providers.  The results of the survey show a very clear picture that all stakeholders are at different states of readiness.  The outcomes will be used to shape the capacity building programme and the review of the communications strategy for NI.

Communications Strategy Review

The NI VQRP communications group carried out a review of its communications strategy in November. Stakeholders shaped this review through the completion of surveys, from feedback at events and seminars and through http://www.nivqrp.org.uk/.  The review recommended that a number of changes be made to the communications strategy for NI.  The new strategy, which will be presented to the NI VQRP board in December, will guide the communication and capacity-building programme between now and the end of 2010.  It will be published on http://www.nivqrp.org.uk/.

Recognition of Training in Employment (RTEP) Programme

The aim of this programme is to increase the number of accredited qualifications used by employers. Support and advice on the programme is being provided by the regulator CCEA which has been successful in engaging with a number of employers who have expressed interest in having their in-house training provision accredited. Organisations interested in this activity should contact in the first instance cheathwood@ccea.org.uk
 
For further information on any of these activities in NI, please contact Nick Gibson: nicholas.gibson@delni.gov.uk , 028 9025 7973.