Computing & Digital Blog

June 10, 2015

Women in digital media in decline

A recent report by the UK Commission for Employment and Skills shows that the proportion of women working in the digital sector has fallen from 33% (in 2002) to 26% (in 2014). Both figures are significantly below the average for all sectors (47%). The report points out that this decline comes at a time of rising demand for skills in this area. It is compounded by the decline in the number of women doing Computer Science at university. It’s a long…

Categories: Computing, Issues

Bobby 0

June 9, 2015

NQ Computing

I’m the qualifications officer for all computing NQ subjects, old subjects and levels as well as the new CfE curriculum. This involves managing the teams who write assessment materials, replying to any queries and organising and attending any events/meetings as well as looking after the computing teams when we are marking in May and June. We are currently in the middle of procedures, most marking for computing subjects is now completed and we are starting to looking at the statistics which show lots…

Categories: Computing

sqablogs 0

June 9, 2015

PDAs in Software Development

I’m pleased to announce that we will be developing a suite of awards in software development. These new qualifications will be Professional Development Awards (PDAs) at SCQF Levels 7, 8 and 9. The working title of the qualifications will be: PDA in Software Development at SCQF Levels 7, 8 and 9. The business case was recently approved so I am now in a position to begin this development. The qualifications will focus on programming skills to address the skills shortage…

Categories: Computing, Development, PDA

Bobby 3

June 8, 2015

NPA Computer Refurbishment at SCQF level 4

We are now in the final stage of this development. The two component Units in this award are now available on the NQ Search of SQA website: H980 44 Refurbishing and Recycling a Computer (at SCQF level 4): http://www.sqa.org.uk/sqa/files/nu/H98044.pdf H981 44 Setting up a Computer (at SCQF level 4): http://www.sqa.org.uk/sqa/files/nu/H98144.pdf The Group Award Specification has been validated and will be coded and published on the website by the end of June. This award will be ready for centres to deliver…

Categories: Computing

Helen 0

June 4, 2015

New HN Unit: Digital Skills

A few months ago, I mentioned that we were developing a new HN Unit entitled Digital Skills at SCQF Level 7. The aim of the Unit is to deliver basic digital skills to learners undertaking HN awards. The Unit is just about finished now. It will be finalised and coded in the next few weeks. You can see the current version of the Unit here. It will be available to centres from 1 August. Caroline will consult with the QST…

Categories: Computing, Development, HN, Unit Specification