I’ve mentioned on a couple of occasions the Royal Society report on Computing in schools. One of the key recommendations from that report was to do with naming the subject. I subsequently stated, after internal and external consultation, that SQA would adopt the nomenclature.

So, today, I instigated changing the names of the verification groups to follow the advice in the Report. There are currently two Computing verification groups:

• 357 Computing
• 358 Information Systems.

This will become three groups:

• xxx Computer Science
• xxx Digital Literacy
• xxx Information Technology.

Once these new groups have been established, I will assign units to each group and then assign External Verifiers to each group.

The new nomenclature is clearer and better reflects the reality of the industry. It separates computer science from the other areas and makes a distinction between ICT skills (now “digital literacy”) and technical skills (now “information technology”). I think that that’s a better fit for my portfolio of awards.

Please contact me if you want more information about these changes.