Sector Panel meeting

The Sector Panel for Computing & Information Technology met today, for one of its regular bi-annual meetings. The meeting was held in the SQA offices in Glasgow. The purpose of the Panel is to advise SQA about external developments, and it's also an opportunity for me to update members about what we are doing. The Panel consists of representatives of FE colleges, universities, employers, and national bodies such as E-Skills UK and HMIE.

The agenda always covers a wide range of issues. Today we discussed, among other things,  new developments (I gave members an update on the HN Review), the marketing of SQA qualifications, and how to measure success in HN programmes. I have previously mentioned Ron and Joanna's work on measuring success in HN awards, and they gave a presentation to the whole Panel on this topic.

The Panel is not a talk shop. At a previous meeting, a new qualification on mobile technology was proposed so it was great to see Joe Spencer, of SQA's NQGA team, update members on progress to date. It's hoped to validate this new award (which will be called NPA in Mobile Technology and available at SCQF Levels 4 and 5) in May/June and have it available to centres from August.

There are some standing items on the agenda. For example, we always get an update from the Sector Skills Council for IT. Chris Morrow, of E-Skills, updated us on UK-wide developments, including the E-placement scheme, which I hope to incorporate into HN awards.

We keep the membership of the Panel under constant review so contact Caroline if you are interested in serving on this committee. Contact Joe if you want to know more about the NPA in Mobile Technology. Contact our stats team if want to know more about the statistical services that we provide.