The QCF will be rolled out across England, Wales and Northern Ireland |
THE GOVERNMENT has announced a new system to ensure that learners will be more able to study in 'bite-sized chunks', building up a portfolio of accredited training which suits their individual needs.
The new Qualifications and Credit Framework (QCF) will enable people to gain qualifications at their own pace, from a number of sources, in a way that suits them - and to carry the modules with them if, for example, they change jobs.
Employers will find it easier to find or develop employees with the skills they need for business success. By 2010 all key vocational qualifications will be approved by Sector Skills Councils and readily available to learners in small, credit-based units of learning.
How does the QCF work?
Every unit and qualification in the framework will have a credit value (one credit represents 10 hours, showing how much time it takes to complete) and a level between Entry level and level 8 (showing how difficult it is).
There are three sizes of qualifications in the QCF:
- Awards (1 to 12 credits)
- Certificates (13 to 36 credits)
- Diplomas (37 credits or more).
So in the new framework you can have an award at level 1 or an award at level 8. This is because the qualification type 'award, certificate, diploma' represents the size of a qualification, not how difficult it is.
Each qualification title contains the following:
- the level of the qualification (from Entry level at the bottom to level 8 at the top)
- the size of qualification (award/certificate/diploma)
- details indicating the content of the qualification.
Simply by looking at the title of a qualification you will be able to see how difficult it is, how long it will take the average learner to complete, and its general content. To understand the level of difficulty of the units and qualifications in the new framework it might be helpful to know that GCSEs (grade A*- C) are level 2, GCE A levels are level 3 and a PhD is a level 8. Knowing this can help to position the difficulty and challenge of each level in the framework.
Which countries does the QCF apply to?
The QCF will be rolled out in England, Wales and Nothern Ireland and has been tested and trialled over the two years from summer 2006.
In Wales, the aim is that the QCF will replace the NQF 'pillar' of the wider Credit and Qualifications Framework for Wales, as it follows the CQFW principles and supports the CQFW aims. The QCF is also being implemented in Northern Ireland following the approval of the Minister for Employment and Learning. The QCF will also align and, where possible, articulate with the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF), the Framework for Higher Education Qualifications and the developing European Qualifications Framework (EQF).
The new system will also be compatible with qualifications frameworks across Europe, ensuring people who work elsewhere in the EU will be able to build a portfolio of qualifications.
Which qualifications are covered by the QCF?
There are already nearly 1,000 qualifications available to learners on the prototype QCF. The launch of the full QCF means that all qualifications will, in time, be available to learners on the QCF, in a unitised and credit-based way.
What are the advantages of the QCF for learners and employees?
This new modular approach to the way vocational qualifications are awarded will make them more relevant to the needs of employers and more flexible and accessible for learners, without compromising quality.
By ensuring that units of learning are recorded on an individual learner record, the QCF will also ensure that a wider range of learners' achievements is recognised, which is simple for all learners and employers to understand. The new framework will reduce bureaucracy in accrediting and assessing qualifications.
The reforms will give learners:
- greater choice in the units of study they can take;
- flexibility on how they study and when they complete each unit;
- recognition of their achievements in the learner achievement record -with the potential to remove the need for individual learners to have to give employers, providers or awarding bodies paper records of all their previous achievements.
The key change for employers is:
- a system in which vocational qualifications are developed and approved based on employers' needs.
The government offered unitised 'bite-sized chunks' of learning in a recent package of support to help small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) get the training that they need most to stay competitive - and wants to allow people taking whole qualifications to be able to do so in the same bite-sized way. |
