An introduction to the SCQF

welcome to this scqf preworkshop video

in case you don't know the acronym

itself stands for the Scottish credit

and qualifications framework and the

scqf is Scotland's framework for

lifelong learning it's one of the oldest

qualifications Frameworks in the world

and the sqf also remains one of the only

Frameworks in the world to fully

integrate lifelong learning while

National qualifications Frameworks in

other countries might just focus on

school or university qualifications the

sqf encompasses a broad range from

school to college to University to

work-based or Community

Learning so what does the scqf do

firstly it helps everyone understand

qualifications from Learners to parents

to employers and everyone in between by

understanding the scqf Learners are

better prepared and equipped to plan

their Learning Journey it provides

formal recognition for learning so if

your qualification is on the sqf it seen

as a badge of equality that will be

recognized nationally and

internationally it also promotes parity

of esteem or equality between vocational

and academic qualifications and finally

the scqf helps employers with

Recruitment and Workforce

Development the scqf partnership was

incorporated as a company limited by

guarantee in November

2006 it's governed by a board of

directors from Member organizations who

meet quarterly all of those bodies

represented on the board have a

prominent role within lifelong learning

in

Scotland the scqf partnership team is

small consisting of just 11

members the scqf partnership team

delivers on three objectives maintain

maining the quality and integrity of the

framework promoting the framework as a

tool for lifelong learning for everyone

in Scotland and developing and

maintaining our relationships with other

Frameworks within the UK Europe and

internationally this is the scqf diagram

and it contains the mainstream Scottish

qualifications offered at school College

University and within the workplace

you'll see it's arranged into 12 levels

with each level increasing in difficulty

so the most difficult qualifications are

at level

12 each qualification is also given scqf

credit points to indicate the amount of

learning time involved in completing the

qualification scqf level descriptors are

the fundamental building blocks behind

each scqf level and we'll cover this in

more detail in the online

Workshop importantly this diagram shows

you the parity of a theme or equality

held by vocational and academic

qualifications you can see that for

example at scqf level 7 there are a

number of qualifications including

Advanced higher

hncs certificate of higher education and

modern apprenticeships that means that

each qualification whilst very different

is considered comparable in terms of

difficulty many people think of the

framework diagram the way you would a

map allowing them to orientate

themselves in terms of the education

landscape wherever they are in their

Learning

Journey we've created this alternative

version of our framework which gives an

indication of some of the Vari learning

programs that have been credit rated and

placed on the

scqf there are over 900 other types of

learning on the framework besides

mainstream qualifications for example

the Duke of Edinburgh leadership award

say a SC qf level 5 and Mountain

training Scotland have the winter

Mountain leader award sitting at scqf

level

9 so what is credit rating well simply

put is the process of allocating an scqf

level and credit points to a program the

level indicates the complexity of the

tasks within the program and the credit

points indicates how many hours the

typical learner would need to dedicate

to achieving the learning

for example a national five sits on the

scqf a level five and has 24 credit

points attached to it which equates to

240 hours any program can be credit

rated as long as it meets the following

criteria a program must have clear

learning outcomes a minimum of 10

notional learning hours equal to one

scqf credit Point formal

assessment and the arrangements for

internal and external quality

assurance by using these criteria

there's a consistent approach meaning

you can be assured that learning

programs on the scqf have all gone

through the same rigorous

processes by using our database Search

tool on the scqf website you can quickly

identify learning programs that have

been credit rated the scqf encompasses

over 11 a half thousand learning

programs across all types of formal

nonformal and informal learning and this

tool is designed to make navigating our

database as simple as possible simply

click on the database icon on the

homepage at

scqf

org.uk and select from search options

such as scqf level subject keyword

credit rating body or owner of a

qualification

program that's our Whistle Stop tour of

of the scqf complete if you have any

questions about any of the content

please feel free to get in touch or ask

us in the workshop we hope that's given

you a good insight and background into

the scqf