Qualification and Credit Framework will go

Withdrawal of the QCF (Qualification and Credit Framework) – what will it mean for Awarding Organisations?

Alongside yesterday’s announcement from Ofqual you can find plenty of supplementary information. The best read is probably the ‘Regulatory Assessment Impact’. It provides some nuggets, including the statement: 

‘we will introduce a new, single descriptive framework to cover all regulated qualifications.’

The main news includes:

• No necessity to unitise qualifications going forward.

• It’s the AOs decision to assign credits, or not. However, AOs will need to publish their approach.

• Assessment may be reduced, where assessment has required ‘mastery’ and all the Learning Outcomes are assessed - but assessment will still need to be appropriate, valid and reliable.  

• There will be an end to shared units. AOs will have to take ‘full accountability for the validity and quality of their own qualifications’.

• Third parties, such as Sector Skills Councils will not be permitted to submit their own units for AOs to use in their qualifications. Ofqual say ‘we may need to consider whether any arrangements between awarding organisations and end users’ representatives… and if this creates any risks to the valid and efficient design and delivery of qualifications’.

• There will be guidance around using ‘award, certificate and diploma’ titles.

There are also some interesting views on transition costs of ending the unit bank.

An outline timetable has been published too.

Ofqual link to documents https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/withdrawing-qcf-regulatory-arrangements

Heather Venis works with Awarding Organisations and provides freelance support