ECVET: Partnerships and mobility

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ECVET Partnerships and mobility
How will the QCF support Mobility through Credit
Accumulation and Transfer? Nick Juba, QCA
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What kind of Framework is the QCF?

• Some key features

• A framework
• covering all achievements in England, Wales and
  Northern Ireland
• where all achievements are regulated by
  independent bodies (to ensure trust, quality and
  transparency) through a published set of
  regulatory arrangements
• units form the building blocks of all QCF
  qualifications
• where all units and qualifications are
  explicitly described in terms of Learning
  Outcomes (LOs)
• with a common set of specifications for units,
  RoC and qualifications
• with nine levels (entry level - level 8)
• with an integrated system of credit accumulation
  and transfer

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How does credit work in the QCF

• Some of the basics

• In the QCF
• credit is an award made to a learner in
  recognition of completion of a set of LOs
• one credit is awarded for completing the LOs
  associated with 10 hours of learning
• Credit is more than a just a measure of volume
• credit can be accumulated and transferred within
  the Rules of Combination for qualifications
• all awarding bodies (ABs) are required - through
  regulation - to recognise the credit awarded by
  other ABs
• Credit transfer is a right of the learner that
  does not require further negotiations or
  agreements

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Some of the key players/actors

• Culturally and geographically specific

• Ministries DCSF and DIUS Set policy and sponsor
  programme
• Ofqual accredit qualifications and regulate the
  framework
• QCA capacity building and communications
• Sector Bodies set out employers requirements for
  qualifications in their sector and produce
  occupational standards
• Awarding bodies design, develop, submit and
  award units and qualifications
• Learning Skills Council funding for learners
• Learning providers deliver and assess learners
  on QCF programmes
• The operation of CAT is set out in QCF
  regulations not through bi-multilateral
  agreements between these actors

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Credit transfer between QCF and other frameworks

• Some specific advantages of the QCF for mobility

• Once another framework has learned the rules of
  the QCF it has a one-stop-shop for E,W NI
• The QCF guarantees the quality of all
  achievements through a single set of transparent
  regulations. Establishes trust between partners
• Allows simpler agreement i.e. single
  articulation agreement with SCQF (at least in
  one direction)
• Specific technical features designed to promote
  transfer (exemptions for certificated
  achievements outside QCF and RPL for
  informal/non-formal)
• Credit achieved in the QCF (by an individual from
  another country) can then accumulated or
  transferred towards other QCF qualifications
• From the perspective of the learner the fewer
  bilateral agreement the better as these by
  definition add bureaucracy and limit credit
  transfer and hence mobility

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