Following the announcement by the Deputy First Minister last week about the new qualifications in Cyber Security, Holyrood Magazine ran an article on the project yesterday.
Read moreRead more about Cyber Security awards are in the newsThe Deputy First Minister, John Swinney, announced the development of a new suite of qualifications in cyber security at yesterday’s Cyber Security 2015 event, held in Edinburgh. SQA will be developing a number of National Progression Awards in this area at SCQF Levels 4, 5 and 6. It’s an exciting development. It will be the first qualification of its kind (aimed at school pupils) in Europe. The hope is that it will engender an interest in computer science among young…
Read moreRead more about Cyber Security qualificationsThe Heads of Computing event took place on Friday at the Stirling Highland Hotel. This annual event has taken place for over 20 years now and is an important date in the team’s calendar. It went well. The agenda this year, I thought, was a particularly good mix of stuff-you-need-to-know and interesting presentations about such things as the future of assessment and cyber security. My own presentation provided an update on qualifications (a standing item on the agenda) plus a…
Read moreRead more about Heads of Computing eventThe Times ran an article last week about the continued problems attracting women to STEM subjects at university. The figures for Computer Science were particularly bleak, with 87% of entrants last year being male, a rise of 2% since 2008. The good news is that the total number of people doing Computer Science at university has risen dramatically, up almost 50% in the last seven years. But the gender problem appears to be getting worse. There has been numerous initiatives…
Read moreRead more about Gender problem persistsThe first meeting of the Qualification Development Team (QDT) for PC Passport met on Saturday in Stirling. It was a good meeting. There were representatives of the college and school sectors. We made a lot of progress in a short time. There was a consensus among the group that we wanted to go back to basics with the award, which would mean simplifying the structure and refocusing on application packages. Application packages have changed a lot since PC Passport was…
Read moreRead more about PC Passport QDT meetingI announced the review of HNC/D Interactive Media some time ago. Since then, we’ve created a Qualification Development Team (QDT), which has now met on three occasions. One of those meetings was held today in the SQA offices in Glasgow. Fiona Murnin (of New College Lanarkshire) is leading the development. The development is progressing well. Fiona has created frameworks for three new awards; HNC Digital Design & Web Development HND Web Development HND Digital Design. Today’s meeting was to discuss…
Read moreRead more about Review of HNC/D Interactive MediaI’ve mentioned the Lead Person Network (LPN) previously. The Network now has 28 members, covering every college in Scotland. I appreciate that this is, in fact, more than the total number of (new) colleges in Scotland but, for the time being, some colleges have been permitted more than one representative. The FAQ covers the most common questions about the Lead Person Network. In time, I’m sure that the LPN will serve a very useful service as a conduit between SQA…
Read moreRead more about Update on Lead Person NetworkWe are now proceeding with the review of PC Passport. This was “parked” to permit the team to focus on Digital Passport but we’re now in a position to get on with this review. To that end, we’ve arranged a meeting on Saturday, 24 January in Stirling to discuss the nature of the changes required. It’s not too late to get involved. We’re particularly looking for representatives of the school and training sectors. Please contact Helen if you want to…
Read moreRead more about PC Passport reviewThe annual event for Heads of Computing in Scottish colleges is taking place on Friday, 30 January in the Stirling Highland Hotel. The agenda has now been finalised and includes some interesting talks from a range of experts. The event will also update you on some important developments such as the review of HNC/D Interactive Media and NPA PC Passport. It’s usually an interesting and informative day so I hope that you can join me and my team. You can…
Read moreRead more about Heads of Computing eventWe held a meeting this afternoon to discuss the future of the HNC/D IT award. The award is (over)due a review but we had received a number of different ideas about what to do with it so today’s meeting was a brain storming session. Representatives of colleges and universities attended. We had an open discussion about the changes required and made some important decisions. The working title for the revised award is HNC/D Technologies for Business. It will include a…
Read moreRead more about HNC/D Information Technology