Vocational Qualifications in England Julian Stanley Centre for Education and Industry, University of Warwick London, 22 October 2012.

Vocational Qualifications in England

Julian Stanley

Centre for Education and Industry,

University of Warwick

London, 22 October 2012

Organisations involved with Vocational Qualifications

• Awarding Organisations Producers• Skills Sector Councils• Further Education Colleges Trainers• Training Organisations• Employers Users• Students• Ofqual – Public Regulator Governors

– Qualification Curriculum Framework• UK Commission for Employment and Skills

What do Skills Councils Do

• Skills forecasting• Designing occupational standards

– research, define and update competences for particular jobs

• Designing apprenticeships• Encouraging employers to train workers

Sector Skills Councils

– Proskills the Process and Manufacturing Sector• Standards and qualifications

– Summit Skills – Building Services Engineering– Semta - Sector Skills Council for the Advanced

Manufacturing and Engineering sectors– Cogent – chemical, pharmaceutical, energy, life

sciences

National Occupational Standards

• Set out the standards required to work in particular occupations/jobs

• Designed by groups of employers and experts, e.g. Murco

• Owned by sector skill councils• Reviewed every 3 years• Public consultation

Occupational Standards

• Performance criteria = what you can do• Knowledge and Understanding = what

you know and can explain

Active Learning

Task 1• Visit websites for Sector Skills Councils:

http://www.sscalliance.org/ - identify 3 Sector Skills Councils

• Visit the website for the UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES) – what does it do?

Task 2• National Occupational Standards

Database• Task: go to National Occupational

Standards database and identify performance criteria and knowledge and understanding for a particular occupational standard

Awarding Organisations• Edexcel• OCR• City and Guilds

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See Register of Regulated Organisations

What do awarding organisations do?

• Design the qualifications• Quality assure provider (college or

school)• Set the assessment, e.g. exam• Carry out assessment, validate, monitor

and report and issue diploma

Qualifications consist of units

Unit 2

Unit 3

Unit 1

Qualification

Task 3

Which awarding organisation provides:• BTEC qualifications?• Cambridge Technical qualifications?

Find out the name of a qualification provided by City and Guilds.

National Vocational Qualifications

• competence based• performance of tasks• assessed by observation and

questioning – log book• work-based• for adults in work and apprentices

Vocationally related Qualifications• BTECs and Cambridge Technicals

– Levels 1-3– 14-19 year olds– No written exams– Practical assessments and coursework– Taught in college and schools– Qualify for work and university

• ‘Diplomas’– National qualifications– 14-19 year olds– 14 sectors including engineering– include key skills and generic skills– Qualify for work and university– school or college based– written exams and coursework assessment

Key Skills• GCSEs – academic qualifications, e.g.

mathematics, English, history• Functional Skills – practical skills –

using skills at work, at home– English– Mathematics– Information and Communications

Technology

Generic or wider Key Skills• Problem solving• information technology• Team work• Communication• Improving own learning and

performance

Task• Visit the register:

http://register.ofqual.gov.uk/Qualification

Explore the different types of qualification

Explore the different types of qualifications under type – English for Speakers of Other Languages

Apprenticeship Frameworks– Knowledge (Technical Certificate usually a

vocational qualification )– Skills (Usually a National Vocational

Qualification)– Key skills– Employment Rights– Generic Skills

Types of Apprenticeship

• Intermediate Level 2• Advanced Level 3• Higher Level 4

Task

Go to Apprenticeship data base• Find an Apprenticeship Framework at Level 2,

for example, engineering• Find another Framework at Level 3 and Level

4• Find out what information is available about

each framework• Find out what pathways there are• Feedback to group