December 4, 2019 - Helen -
The Digital Skills Partnership’s Critical Friends Programme is a free mentorship programme, funded by Scottish Funding Council and Skills Development Scotland, in which lecturers are matched with industry friends for 12 months to provide insight into current industry practice and discuss how to help ensure students have the skills they need to succeed in industry. If you are delivering HNC/D or Undergraduate level courses in the area of Computer Science you could be matched with one of the following industry…
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November 26, 2019 - Bobby -
Following my recent announcement that SQA was about to begin the development of a suite of new, advanced qualifications in data science, the Qualification Development Team (QDT) met for the first time on Saturday in SQA’s offices in Glasgow. The QDT has representation from colleges, industry and national organisations but we’re looking for more members, particularly from the university and employment sectors, so please let Emma know if you’re interested in working with us. I was particularly pleased to welcome…
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November 22, 2019 - Bobby -
All centres should have received a set of teaching and learning material for NPA Cyber Security. We now plan to provide training on the use of the material, and also demonstrate teaching approaches. I’m now able to provide more information about this training. There will be three training events. 1. Wednesday, 5 February at Stirling Management Centre. 2. Friday, 21 February at Radisson Blu Hotel in Glasgow. 3. Friday, 28 February at Radisson Blu Hotel in Edinburgh. The first event…
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November 15, 2019 - Bobby -
The Short Life Working Group (SLWG), which I previously mentioned, met today to discuss how best to support the new NPA in Data Science. We looked at ways of providing additional support to teachers because of the unique challenges that data science presents to practitioners. The recently produced materials for NPA Cyber Security have been very well received by teachers and, ideally, we’d like to do something similar for this qualification. But that material was funded by central government, as…
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November 14, 2019 - Helen -
Before we start a formal qualification review, we will carry out a scoping exercise to identify changes needed for an existing qualification. We have currently identified three qualifications due to review and are looking for consultants to undertake scoping for the following: G9J8 45 NPA Computer Networks and Systems G9HL 44 NPA Software Development We have created a scoping FAQ to help you understand this process. If you are interested or have any query, please contact Helen.
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November 13, 2019 - Bobby -
Every school and college in Scotland should have received a complimentary copy of the enhanced support materials for NPA Cyber Security by now. The next stage is to provide training on how to use the materials. We plan to hold three training events at different locations across Scotland. These events will take place on the following dates: Wednesday, 5 February (Stirling) Friday, 21 February (Glasgow) Friday, 28 February (Edinburgh). The first event will be part of the forthcoming 2020 Computing…
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November 12, 2019 - Helen -
The Digital Skills Partnership has developed the learning materials to support the Digital Forensics and Data Security SCQF level 7 units within the HNC Cyber Security, in collaboration with college lecturers from City of Glasgow College, Dundee and Angus College, New College Lanarkshire and North East Scotland College. The materials are hosted on the college Moodle platform. More information about this development can be found on the Digital Skills Partnership website. The materials will also be helpful for the HND…
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November 1, 2019 - Bobby -
It’s been a while since I last updated you about our plans to review a number of core Higher National awards. The qualifications due for review are: HNC Computing HND Computer Science HND Networking HND Technical Support HND Software Development. We carried out “scoping” of the required changes and it was agreed that HND Technical Support and HND Networking would be rolled-up into a new, single award entitled HND Networking & Infrastructure to reflect changes in industry. More recently, we…
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October 31, 2019 - Bobby -
I’m pleased to let you know that the enhanced materials for NPA Cyber Security are on their way to schools and colleges. Every school and college in Scotland will receive a complete set of nine brochures that cover the contents of the NPA and provide advice to teachers about how best to deliver the qualification. The complete list of brochures is: Educator’s Guide (x1) Learner’s Guides (x3 one each for Data Security, Digital Forensics and Ethical Hacking) Worksheets (x3 one…
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October 25, 2019 - Bobby -
The Sector Panel for Computing had its annual meeting yesterday at the Doubletree Hotel in Glasgow. The purpose of the panel is to provide strategic advice and guidance to the team to ensure that the qualification portfolio meets the needs of educators and employers. The membership of the panel reflects that objective with people from schools, colleges, universities, businesses and national organisations serving on the committee. It was a good meeting. We discussed a wide range of topics — including…
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