New Qualifications – April Update
Update for Parents and Carers
New Guide
A guide about the new qualifications is now available for parents and carers.
It is available to download from the dedicated section of our website –www.sqa.org.uk/cfeforparents
There is also a guide for young people atwww.sqa.org.uk/cfeforyoungpeopleand updated guides for teachers and employers.
On our website, you can find other useful resources such as ourMythbusterandJargon buster.
Final Documents
We have now reached a major milestone in the development process and final documents for the new National 2 to Higher Courses are available.
The final documents will be used by teachers and lecturers to prepare to teach each new Course.
The documents are still of interest to parents and carers as they give information about the skills and knowledge young people will gain.
Use the subject drop-down menu on our website: www.sqa.org.uk/curriculumforexcellenceto find the documents for each subject.
Education Scotland has also published a suite of practical advice and guidance to support practitioners in preparing for implementing key aspects of the new qualifications. See www.educationscotland.gov.uk/nq
The development process
To develop these 197 qualifications we have had targeted engagement with over 5,000 practitioners and other stakeholders.
We have had nearly 600,000 visits of the subject pages on the website and more than 3,400 comments on the draft documents we published at each stage of the process for review and feedback.
We have attended over 700 meetings and 15 events and our development groups, which include parent and carer representatives, have met over 440 times.
Read the thank you message from our Chief Executive.
Awards
SQA has also developed new awards for young people. These cover work from different subject areas and are shorter than traditional Courses. They recognise success across different levels of difficulty, meaning they’re suitable for young people of all abilities. They will be marked and assessed internally and do not have any external assessments or exams. The final documents for these are also now available – see www.sqa.org.uk/newawards
New Courses
Two new Courses –Music Technology andFashion and Textile Technology have been developed in response to feedback throughout the development process.
The new Courses in Music Technology are from National 3 to Higher.
A new Higher Course has been developed for Fashion and Textile Technology.
Next Steps
Advanced Higher We have now begun developing the new Advanced Higher qualifications which will be introduced in 2015/16 and the first draft documents have been published.
Use the subject drop-down menu atwww.sqa.org.uk/curriculumforexcellenceto find the documents for each subject.
Find out more about Advanced Higher –www.sqa.org.uk/advancedhigher
We continue to seek your feedback on these documents as the qualifications are developed.
You can give your feedback via Have Your Say –www.sqa.org.uk/haveyoursay.
CfE Events
To continue to support practitioners with the implementation of the new qualifications, SQA is hosting 10 Curriculum Area events in May 2012 and 10 in September 2012 to update teachers on the latest developments.
Between October 2012 and March 2013 we will host a series of subject-specific events, which every principal subject teacher will be invited to attend.
Our CfE Liaison team are continuing to support local events including those with parents: www.sqa.org.uk/cfeteam
Jillian Shields