Links with CIW

We met with Loraine Johnston, of James Watt College, this morning to discuss a new PDA linked to CIW. We currently have a PDA that links to CIW's Foundations curriculum but we have been planning on extending links to include the CIW Site Designer award for some time.

We asked Lorraine to do a mapping of existing units to the Site Designer course a few months ago. The results were mixed -- some coverage but not 100%. So we decided to revise an old unit (Internet: Web Development) to cover the missing bits. The result will be a new PDA entitled Website Designer at SCQF Level 7, which will fully cover the Site Designer curriculum. This might consist of three units:

1. Web Development Essential Content (existing)
2. Web Development Complex Content (existing)
3. Internet: Web Development (revised)

The Site Designer course will not cover all of these units, but we will produce guidance on what extra needs to be done to pick up these units.

Of course, we have to consult on all of this but we know from centre feedback that there is a demand for this award. We hope to have the new PDA available to centres from January 2011. The new PDA (and the associated units) would sit inside HNC/D Interactive Media.

Contact Caroline for more information about the links between SQA and CIW.