It’s been a while since I updated you about this project. The project commenced last October, when I announced that, thanks to Scottish Government funding, we were about to develop additional support materials for NPA Cyber Security. The enhancement project, as it is called, aimed to provide the following additional support to centres. Improved Learner’s Notes. Improved Educator’s Guide. Republished materials in book format. Improve the SOLAR item bank. Create alternative assessments based on portfolio production. Provide CPD events for…
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I’m pleased to let you know that the conditions placed on this qualification at the recent validation event have now been lifted. It took a bit longer than planned but we’re there now. The qualification is available at SCQF Level 4 (National 4), Level 5 (National 5) and Level 6 (Higher). We will now “operationalise” the qualification, which is SQA-speak for coding it, publishing the units and creating a subject page. Once we’ve done that you will be able to…
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June 20, 2019 - sqablogs -
It has been flagged up by several users that our Internet Safety course on SQA Academy is a bit out of date. This was developed in 2016 and we are now looking to update it. General feedback is that some links to news items, resources, etc could do with being replaced by material that is a bit more generic and futureproof. If you are interested in reviewing and updating the Internet Safety course please get in touch with Hilary Weir. …
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It’s been a while since I posted an update on the review of the suite of HN Computing awards. I’ve had a few queries recently asking what’s happening. The good news is that Computing is now in the first phase of “HN Next Generation” developments — it was originally planned to be in the second phase. This is a good thing — to review the awards using the old design rules, only to revise them again, at a later date,…
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The Qualification Support Team (QST) for Computing is responsible for maintaining qualifications by recommending changes to awards or suggesting support materials that could be produced to help centres deliver qualifications. The QST meets once per year, normally in the Spring to give us time to implement changes to qualifications. This year’s meeting took place at the end of April. The QST is made up of practising teachers and lecturers — chalk-face practitioners who know the issues facing centres. We’re looking…
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May 24, 2019 - sqablogs -
The end accreditation date (lapsing date) for the following qualifications has been extended for a further two years until 31 July 2021. This is to allow time for the qualifications to be updated: GJ75 46 Diploma for Information Security Professionals at SCQF levels 6 Start date: 09/07/2014 Lapsing Date: 31/07/2021 Finish date: 31/07/2025 GJ74 48 Diploma for Information Security Professionals at SCQF levels 8 Start date: 09/07/2014 Lapsing Date: 31/07/2021 Finish date: 31/07/2025 If you require any further information please…
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The SOLAR team at SQA have developed a range of formative and summative assessments for Computing (vocational) qualifications at different levels (Levels 4 – 9). The formative assessments can be accessed via OpenAssess on the SOLAR website. To gain access to the summative assessments, centres should use the link and complete the on-screen pro-forma. The full list of currently available and upcoming summative assessments can be found here, including HNC/D Computing, NPA/HNC Cyber Security and NPA Data Science. If you…
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External Verifiers (EVs) are responsible for ensuring that national standards are applied across all centres in Scotland (and internationally). It’s a really interesting, part-time job, which involves EVs visiting schools, colleges and training centres. We’re currently looking for people to join the Computing team of EVs. You can find out more, and apply, here. I try to mix the team in terms of backgrounds, specialisms, gender, etc. I’d welcome applications from anyone but particularly people with experience of schools, training…
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Qualifications are formally reviewed every few years but, between reviews, we maintain qualifications by making small changes. The types of maintenance we carry out includes: adding units to qualifications revising/updating units writing new units and adding these to existing qualifications revising assessments creating new assessments. For example, in 2017 we devised a new unit in artificial intelligence that we added to HND Computer Science. A couple of years ago, we changed the way that we deal with proposed changes to…
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The validation event for NPA Data Science took place yesterday. I’m pleased to let you know that it went well. The purpose of validation is to permit an independent group of experts to scrutinise a proposed qualification. Yesterday’s panel included representatives of universities (St Andrew’s), colleges (North Lanarkshire), schools (Dumfries & Galloway Council), national organisations (DataLab) and employers (Skills Development Scotland). The development team and panel had positive discussions about the qualification. The panel was enthusiastic about the qualification, and…
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