Overview of VQ reforms and timetable

Key changes:

• VQs which meet employers' needs:

  • Sector Skills Councils' (SSCs) research employers' needs and capture them in Sector Qualification Strategies
  • SSCs work with awarding organisations to develop VQs based on these strategies
  • In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, SSCs provide their support for VQs prior to accreditation, ensuring they meet employers' needs.
  • Employers' in-house training may be accredited. In Scotland, employers' in-house training can already be included in the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF) provided it meets the relevant criteria.
• Providers' training may also be accredited In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and can already be included in the SCQF if it meets the relevant criteria.
• Learners can more readily see the progression opportunities of their VQs, including into Higher Education.

• A new Qualifications and Credit Framework (QCF) is being developed to hold unit- and credit-based vocational qualifications (VQs) in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. VQs with units - or components - allow greater flexibility in the structure of qualifications, such as optional and employer-specific units. Units can also be completed at learners' and employers' convenience. Each unit is worth a number of credit points, based on learning hours. The credit points are awarded after the successful completion of each unit, and learners' achievements are captured on a learner record.

  Scotland already has an established credit framework - the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF) which has unit-based Scottish Vocational Qualifications (SVQs). Completion of units and full qualifications is captured on candidates' Scottish Qualification Certificates.

• Accredited VQs in the QCF are easier to understand, with consistent titles showing each qualification's size based on its number of credit points (award, certificate or diploma), level (Entry Level to Level 8) and content (e.g. marine engineering). It is easier to see who offers which qualifications and to understand the optional units.
• Greater recognition and transferability of learners' achievements: In England, Wales and Northern Ireland learners' credit achievements will be recorded after completion of each unit. The learner record, together with making VQs easier to understand and ensuring that VQs meet employers' needs, will make VQs better recognised and more transferable between employers. Work is underway across the UK and Europe to ensure consistency and greater recognition of VQs across countries.
• Public funding of provision will support the implementation of a unit-based qualification system in which credit can be accumulated and transferred. In England, the LSC is modelling a process whereby SSCs will advise it about which vocational qualifications should be priorities for public funding.

See Who's doing what? for an overview of the programme's structure.