September 6, 2018 - Bobby -
I recently announced the development of HND Cyber Security and, since then, we’ve made some progress. We’ve started writing the Group Award Specification (GAS), which details the aim and structure of the qualification among other things, and selected a Lead Developer. We met with the Lead today. This initial meeting with the Lead Developer is an important part of the qualification development process since it sets the scene for the entire development. His first task is to talk to stakeholders…
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September 3, 2018 - Bobby -
As regular readers will know, Claudia recently left the team to commence teacher training. Claudia was covering for Helen during her maternity leave. Claudia’s replacement commences today and will be with the team until Helen returns next Spring. Caitlin is a recent graduate who was working in the private sector before starting with SQA. Emma stops on Friday (7th) to commence maternity leave. Emma will be replaced by Lorraine, who currently works for SQA but in a different area from…
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August 27, 2018 - Bobby -
The NPA Data Science is progressing well. Since my last post about it, we’ve selected a Lead Developer (a well known and experienced teacher currently working with the Edinburgh City Region Deal project) and produced the aims of the qualification. We met with the Lead on Friday to discuss the qualification development process and the next tasks that have to be carried out. Readers of this blog will know that we plan to develop a suite of awards in data…
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August 24, 2018 - Bobby -
Some time ago, I reminded you about the procedure for making small changes to existing qualifications, such as adding a unit to the options.Because we have commenced the HN Review, we will no longer “tweak” the qualifications involved in that development. The review is a root-and-branch look at the suite of awards so it’s not appropriate to continue to tweak awards that were devised six years ago. This means that the review team aren’t reviewing “shifting sands” and have fixed…
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August 23, 2018 - Bobby -
It’s the time of year when centres begin to deliver our qualifications. There are some checks you should carry out before commencing teaching. We sometimes receive requests for help from centres that have delivered the wrong units. You can avoid that by doing the following. Begin by checking the subject page for any qualification that you’re delivering. The subject page provides all of the information that you need about each qualification — including a link to the Group Award Specification…
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August 17, 2018 - Bobby -
Regular readers will know that we’ve commenced the review of several Higher National qualifications and that we were looking for people to “scope” the required changes. We got several volunteers and selected four people (all practising lecturers) to lead on each qualification. The “scoping team” met for the first time yesterday in Glasgow. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the process for scoping qualifications and to agree tasks and timescales. It was a good meeting. The first stage…
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August 14, 2018 - Bobby -
The team would like to welcome back teachers and lecturers to a new term. The team has had a busy summer. The HN Review commenced at the end of June, HNC Cyber Security was validated in early July and made it available to centres later than month, we commenced the development of new qualifications in data science, started work on HND Cyber Security, published the support materials for cyber security, and announced important changes to the portfolio of qualifications. Two…
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August 10, 2018 - sqablogs -
We are recruiting for writers and vetters for 1 additional ASP for the following Units: Unit J0J7 34 Cyber Security: Graded Unit 1 Unit HG2V 34 Digital Design and Web Development: Graded Unit 1 Unit HT9T 34 Artificial Intelligence If you are interested in writing or vetting one of these ASPs, please e-mail Emma Campos (copied above) by the 24th of August if you are interested.
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August 10, 2018 - Bobby -
This is Claudia’s last day in the team. She was covering Helen’s maternity leave but gained a place at university to train as a teacher, which she starts next week. Claudia has been a big help over the last few months and we will be sorry to see her go. I hope to have a replacement in the near future but in the meantime please e-mail computing@sqa.org.uk if there is anything that we can help you with. Helen will return…
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The portfolio of Computing qualifications is changing. Mainstream computer science/IT awards and digital skills qualifications are being separated. Me and my team will continue to look after computer science/IT but Hilary and her team will now look after digital skills/digital literacy qualifications. This means that “digital qualifications” are now Hilary’s responsibility. The following qualifications have been moved: Award in Internet Safety NPA Digital Literacy NPA Social Software NPA Digital Media PC Passport NPA Digital Passport HNC/D Technologies in Business I…
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