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Overview of the framework

The Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework Partnership promotes lifelong learning in Scotland. Through the Framework (see diagram), you can find out about all mainstream qualifications in Scotland and plan your future learning. The Framework supports everyone in Scotland, including learners, learning providers and employers, by:

  • helping people of all ages and circumstances to get access to appropriate education and training so they can meet their full potential;
  • helping employers, learners and the general public to understand the full range of Scottish qualifications, how qualifications relate to each other and to other forms of learning, and how different types of qualification can contribute to improving the skills of the workforce.

By using two measures, the Level of a qualification and the number of Credit Points awarded for that qualification, the Framework helps you understand and compare qualifications. (The level of a qualification increases with the complexity of the course. The number of credit points for a qualification is based on the amount of time that an 'average' learner studying at the appropriate level might take to achieve the outcome of that course. One SCQF credit point represents 10 hours of learning time.)

The Framework:

  • describes the courses and programmes that lead to qualifications;
  • helps you develop 'progression routes' for you to follow; and
  • allows you to make the most of the opportunities to transfer credit points between qualifications.

The Framework also provides an extremely important way of recognising 'outcome-based learning' (learning that is related to things that you can do) and 'quality-assured learning' (learning that has been assessed and checked by someone else) in a wide range of settings (for example, learning in the workplace or in the community).

It is intended that those with responsibility for the delivery of education and training in Scotland will use the SCQF as a basis for developing and describing provision. This includes schools, colleges, higher education, community education and providers of work-based learning who are developing programmes to meet local and national education and training needs. Any short programme, module, unit or work-based learning has the potential to be credit-rated provided that it is based on learning outcomes, is included within an appropriate quality assured system and is subject to reliable and valid methods of assessment.

Level Descriptors
The SCQF has 12 Levels, reflecting the current Scottish system of education and training. Level 1 is the least demanding and Level 12 the most demanding. The descriptors show how each level becomes increasingly demanding by changes to factors such as complexity and depth of knowledge, links to associated academic, vocational or professional practice, and the degree of autonomy exercised by the learner.

The SCQF Levels provide a basis for broad comparisons between learning and qualifications achieved in different contexts such as the workplace and formal classroom study.

The level descriptors have been designed to provide a general understanding of each Level, and their development has drawn extensively on:

  • related criteria developed by SQA;
  • the levels for courses and core skills developed for SQA's National Qualifications;
  • earlier work to develop level descriptors for the SCOTCAT Framework;
  • the benchmarks developed by the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) for Honours Degrees;
  • the level descriptors for Scottish Vocational Qualifications (SVQs) / National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) developed by the regulatory bodies: Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) for SVQs, and the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) for NVQs.

The development of the descriptors was a complex task and involved workshops and consultations with a range of interested bodies in the different sectors. The SCQF Handbook contains the Level Descriptors developed as a result of these consultations, and these will be subject to periodic review by the SCQF Quality Committee

 

 

Visit SQA website for further details http://www.scqf.org.uk/AbouttheFramework/Overview-of-Framework.aspx