I attended a Technology Industry Advisory Board (TIAB) meeting on Tuesday. The Board is a joint initiative, between Skills Development Scotland and SQA, to provide advice and guidance to both bodies about industry needs and external trends.

I was invited to speak about vocational qualifications, in general, and, specifically, about how we try to keep them up to date and relevant to industry. We’ve done a lot of development work in the last few years, so the qualification portfolio is pretty up-to-date right now, with qualifications (or individual units) in computer science, data analytics, cyber security and artificial intelligence – with more on the way. I also described the various committees that advise us and help SQA to produce qualifications including the Sector Panel for Computing, which provides me with strategic advice.

I was asked how we keep individual units up to date, given the rapid rate of change in the computing field. I acknowledged that that was a challenge but pointed out that we’re doing a better job now in writing units in a more generic way, which means that they don’t date so rapidly. I used the recently written Artificial Intelligence unit as an example.

It was an interesting meeting, which also covered the perennial problem of gender imbalance in the computing industry. I think that the Board will be a great help to me and my team in the coming years. Please contact Derek Houston if you want to know more about the work of the TIAB.