Professional Development Award in Online Child Protection

A few months ago, CEOP approached SQA to ask if we would work with them to create a formal qualification based around their Ambassador programme. The Ambassador course is designed for professionals who work with children, and who want to be able to provide training to other adults in child online protection.

We were delighted to work with CEOP, and today I got great news --- the qualification is now validated! So SQA now has a formal qualification for people who want to specialise in child online protection. It's called the PDA in Online Protection & Safeguarding of Children and will be jointly certificated by SQA and CEOP. The Arrangements are not yet on the SQA website but should appear there in the near future.

We expect a wide range of professional people to undertake the qualification including teachers, social workers, and police officers. The award is very flexible, involving attendance at the Ambassador course followed by some online learning and uses online assessment.

I'm certain that it's the first national qualification of its kind in the UK and, as far as I know, the EU. It may even be a world first. There will be a national launch of the new qualification on Safer Internet Day in February 2010. In the meantime, please contact Caroline if you want to know more.

This PDA, which is for adult professionals, compliments the Internet Safety unit, which is for young people and others who use the Internet. And we're now looking at another unique area of protection in conjunction with a Scottish college.