England, Wales and Northern Ireland are creating a framework similar to Scotland’s SCQF and I’ve been in London for a couple of days to get up-to-speed on developments. It’s been very interesting.

The Qualification & Credit Framework (QCF) has nine levels (SCQF has 12) and uses 10 hour credits (rather than SQA’s 40 hour credits). But the underlying principles are the same. Of course, it’s a major undertaking to standardise qualifications in such a complex environment as England (there are hundreds of awarding bodies for one thing) but QCA appears to have made a lot of progress.

One of the interesting aspects of the event was the location – Chelsea Football Club, which was a great meeting place and the stadium itself looked fantastic.