Vocational Qualifications in England Julian Stanley Centre for Education and Industry, University of Warwick London, 22 October 2012

Organisations involved with Vocational Qualifications Awarding OrganisationsProducers Skills Sector Councils Further Education CollegesTrainers Training Organisations EmployersUsers Students Ofqual – Public RegulatorGovernors –Qualification Curriculum Framework UK Commission for Employment and Skills

What do Skills Councils Do Skills forecasting Designing occupational standards –research, define and update competences for particular jobs Designing apprenticeships Encouraging employers to train workers

Sector Skills Councils –Proskills the Process and Manufacturing SectorProskills Standards and qualifications –Summit Skills – Building Services Engineering –Semta - Sector Skills Council for the Advanced Manufacturing and Engineering sectors –Cogent – chemical, pharmaceutical, energy, life sciencesCogent

National Occupational Standards Set out the standards required to work in particular occupations/jobs Designed by groups of employers and experts, e.g. MurcoMurco Owned by sector skill councils Reviewed every 3 years Public consultation

Occupational Standards Performance criteria = what you can do Knowledge and Understanding = what you know and can explain

Active Learning

Task 1 Visit websites for Sector Skills Councils: - identify 3 Sector Skills Councils Visit the website for the UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES) – what does it do?UK Commission for Employment and Skills

Task 2 National Occupational Standards DatabaseNational Occupational Standards Database Task: go to National Occupational Standards database and identify performance criteria and knowledge and understanding for a particular occupational standard

Awarding Organisations Edexcel OCR City and Guilds &&&& See Register of Regulated OrganisationsRegulated Organisations

What do awarding organisations do? Design the qualifications Quality assure provider (college or school) Set the assessment, e.g. exam Carry out assessment, validate, monitor and report and issue diploma

Qualifications consist of units Unit 2 Unit 3 Unit 1 Qualification

Task 3 Which awarding organisation provides: BTEC qualifications? Cambridge Technical qualifications? Find out the name of a qualification provided by City and Guilds.

National Vocational Qualifications competence based performance of tasks assessed by observation and questioning – log book work-based for adults in work and apprentices

Vocationally related Qualifications BTECs and Cambridge Technicals –Levels 1-3 –14-19 year olds –No written exams –Practical assessments and coursework –Taught in college and schools –Qualify for work and university

‘Diplomas’ –National qualifications –14-19 year olds –14 sectors including engineering –include key skills and generic skills –Qualify for work and university –school or college based –written exams and coursework assessment

Key Skills GCSEs – academic qualifications, e.g. mathematics, English, history Functional Skills – practical skills – using skills at work, at home –English –Mathematics –Information and Communications Technology

Generic or wider Key Skills Problem solving information technology Team work Communication Improving own learning and performance

Task Visit the register:registe Explore the different types of qualification Explore the different types of qualifications under type – English for Speakers of Other Languages

Apprenticeship Frameworks –Knowledge (Technical Certificate usually a vocational qualification ) –Skills (Usually a National Vocational Qualification) –Key skills –Employment Rights –Generic Skills

Types of Apprenticeship Intermediate Level 2 Advanced Level 3 Higher Level 4

Task Go to Apprenticeship data base Find an Apprenticeship Framework at Level 2, for example, engineering Find another Framework at Level 3 and Level 4 Find out what information is available about each framework Find out what pathways there are Feedback to group