{"id":4417,"date":"2026-02-03T10:54:31","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T10:54:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.qualifications.gov.scot\/computing\/?p=4417"},"modified":"2026-02-03T10:54:31","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T10:54:31","slug":"nextgen-hnd-computer-science-and-hnd-data-science-validated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.qualifications.gov.scot\/computing\/nextgen-hnd-computer-science-and-hnd-data-science-validated\/","title":{"rendered":"NextGen HND Computer Science and HND Data Science Validated"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n<p>We held a joint validation event for NextGen HND Computer Science and HND Data Science in late November last year. David Hiddleston from Edinburgh College served as convenor, and the validation panel included\u00a0representatives from colleges, universities, training providers, and Skills Development Scotland (SDS).<\/p>\r\n<p>These two HNDs have adopted the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sqa.org.uk\/sqa\/105607.11499.html\">new NextGen design principles<\/a>, and both feature a smaller framework, compared to the legacy HNDs, with fewer but larger units. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sqa.org.uk\/sqa\/110308.html\">Meta-skills<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sqa.org.uk\/sqa\/106087.html\">learning for sustainability<\/a> have been contextualised with subject-specific examples and embedded throughout the qualification content. A new whole-qualification grading model will provide a clearer understanding of learners&#8217; academic, vocational, and professional capabilities.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n<p>We are pleased to announce that both HNDs are now validated and live on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sqa.org.uk\/sqa\/110487.html\">NextGen: HN course documents page<\/a>. If you or your centre is interested in delivering the qualifications and needs more information or support, please do not hesitate to contact <a href=\"mailto:helen.zhang@qualifications.gov.scot\">me<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We held a joint validation event for NextGen HND Computer Science and HND Data Science in late November last year. David Hiddleston from Edinburgh College served as convenor, and the validation panel included\u00a0representatives from colleges, universities, training providers, and Skills Development Scotland (SDS). These two HNDs have adopted the new NextGen design principles, and both feature a smaller framework, compared to the legacy HNDs, with fewer but larger units. Meta-skills and learning for sustainability have been contextualised with subject-specific examples&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qualifications.gov.scot\/computing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4417"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qualifications.gov.scot\/computing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qualifications.gov.scot\/computing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qualifications.gov.scot\/computing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qualifications.gov.scot\/computing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4417"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qualifications.gov.scot\/computing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4417\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4421,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qualifications.gov.scot\/computing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4417\/revisions\/4421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qualifications.gov.scot\/computing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qualifications.gov.scot\/computing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.qualifications.gov.scot\/computing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}