A Recognised Qualification

Learners ask lots of questions.  It’s not surprising.  Unravelling educational opportunities can be a baffling process.

And if one tangle causes more angst, and generates more queries, than most, it must be “Will my qualification be recognised.”   Alas, there are no simple answers.

For starters, every year brings changes – in come foundation degrees, diplomas, or A* A-levels;  up come IGCSEs; down and out go NVQs; and so on.

True, there is (or will be soon) a UK qualifications framework in place.   Which may, or may not, use the language of levels we currently use;  which may, or may not, be similar to the European framework.   And which may, or may not, include some of the qualifications you might want to take.

True, there are some awarding bodies that are “recognised by governent”.   But inclusion, or omission, from the current list does not necessarily tell you whether employers and others will in their turn recognise that body.

And will the promised accreditation of awarding bodies by Ofqual parallel the current governmental recognition scheme, or be completely different?   How will it relate to the Sector Skills Councils (I think they still exist, don’t they?  Gosh I must be losing my grip)?   Or the NOS (that’s National Occupational Standards to you)?

Confused?   Join the club.

Independent Assessment

Educational opportunities and courses are, for the most part, controlled by the state:  through funding, through inspections by Ofsted, QAA and friends, and through national curricula.

Awarding bodies, by contrast, can more or less do their own thing.   Their funding comes from fees, not grants, many are firmly in the private sector and such approval and inspection regimes that are in place are pussy cats compared to Ofsted.

There are good reasons for this independence.   Taking assessment out of the hands of teachers arguably makes it more robust and more reliable.

But it also, inevitably, leads to distrust and resentment between those who provide the education (schools and colleges), and those who assess the outcomes (the awarding bodies).

(Mind you, the awarding bodies don’t help themselves by launching “school improvement” services, as Edexcel have just done, blurring the boundary between teaching and assessment still further.   Edexcel may well argue that their new income stream wil be helpful to schools.   Others see it as exploitative, involving “conflicts of interest” to the point at which is becomes a “kind of madness”)

You Get What You Pay For

No surprise, then, that colleges (well, the 157 Group of colleges, at least) have said they are planning to set up their own awarding body, at least according to TES.

Why?   To save money.   As Lynne Sedgmore, CEO of the 157 Group, delicately puts it, “adopting an employee-led mutual approach to awarding qualifications will enable significant financial efficiencies, through shared services and by keeping public sector funds within the FE sector, rather than feeding surpluses into private stakeholder profits”.

In short, colleges are fed up of fat cats feasting off the FE sector.   So they’re fighting back.

And the spoils are worth fighting for.   Colleges paid over an estimated £200 million in fees to awarding bodies last year.   Surely keeping such sums within the college community makes sense?

But is it what learners want?   Another awarding body to add to the legions already out there?   More risks of “conflicts of interest” when those who provide are in bed with those who assess?

Isn’t it yet another messy compromise, forced on colleges by the grim determination of the government to save money, whatever the cost?

Surely the answer is for the government to take much firmer control of qualifications.   Qualifications, like it or not, are now the currency of educational ability.  Qualifications supply should no more be left to an unregulated private sector, than money supply should be left to private sector banks

Qualifications are the one area of education where regulation is required.    And where do they find the resources to do that?   By relieving providers of some of the stifling burden of regulation that is currently crushing education in this country.    Why not leave more provision to the private sector which, time and time again, proves that it can do a good job.

Sources 157 Group;
Edexcel