The Sector Skills Council for Computing (E-Skills UK) and the awarding bodies across the UK meet every few months to discuss national issues at Awarding Body Forum meetings. I attended a meeting today at the Edexcel offices in London.

The agenda always covers a wide range of issues. Today’s event included an interesting presentation from Mark Elkins from the BBC about their plans to revamp their long-running, and highly successful, Webwise initiative. The updated version should be available from May and will be based around the National Occupational Standards devised by E-Skills.

A large part of the meeting was taken up with Modern Apprenticeships (MAs). There is significant momentum behind MAs, and SQA plans to work with E-Skills to ensure that they are they are available in Scotland, both for IT users and IT professionals.

Some of you may know Genny Dixon from E-Skills, who announced her retirement from E-Skills later this month. Genny has been very helpful to me and my team and will be missed.

SQA hosts the next Awarding Body Forum meeting in June. Contact Hilary if you want to know more about National Occupational Standards or SVQs.