Putting Learners at the Centre

There was an internal SQA meeting this morning to discuss the implications for SQA of the recently published pre-legislative report on post-16 education in Scotland. Putting Learners at the Centre, published by the Scottish Government in September, covers key areas for post-compulsory education in Scotland, particularly issues relating to improved efficiency and articulation between college and university.

"Regionalism" is a key theme in the report, whereby groups of colleges and universities can work together, in a local region, to make efficiency savings and improve the service to learners. The other key theme is articulation between college and university. The report notes the successes in this area that have already been achieved, such as strong links between many HNC/D  programmes and degree courses, but makes clear that more could be done to strengthen these links and make them more successful.

We had an interesting conversation around three questions:

1. Do we have the right qualifications to meet the needs of employers, learners and the economy?
2. How can we improve progression and articulation between our qualifications and degrees?
3. How can we work more closely with employers?

We've worked hard over the years to forge links between HN awards in Computing and associated degree programmes and, as a result, Computing is one of the subjects with the strongest articulation links between colleges and universities. The current HN Review aims for strengthen these links. It is the main reason that we elected an examination for the Graded Unit in the HNC, rather than a project. This report emphasises the importance of these links.