Development update

I've spent a lot of today discussing the review of HN awards so it seems a good time to update you on how things are going with this project.

The development team is working on five qualifications:

1. HNC Computing
2. HND Computing
3. HND Computing: Technical Support
4. HND Computing: Software Development
5. HND Computer Networking

 Gerry MacKie (Dundee College) is leading the overall development, but each award has its own "qualification leader". The Qualification Development Team (QDT) has 34 members, representing 22 separate colleges, which is more than half of the colleges in Scotland.

We have spent several weeks considering the aims and objectives of each award, and, more recently, we have been working on the draft frameworks. This has taken longer than expected. I had hoped to begin the public consultation (of the aims and frameworks) before now but the internal (QDT) debate has taken longer than anticipated. This was not due to disagreements but, rather, constructive suggestions for what to include in each qualification.

The draft frameworks will be complete for 1 April and a public consultation (using an online survey) will commence on Monday, 4 April and run for the entire month. This will give everyone an opportunity to comment on every aspect of the proposed awards.

In my last update letter (August 2010) I stated that the new qualifications will be ready by early 2012 and available to offer from August 2012, and there is no reason why these dates need to change.

Speaking of update letters, I appreciate that not every Computing lecturer reads this blog, so I plan to write to centres in the near future to provide an update to our more traditional colleagues.

Contact Gerry for more information about the frameworks or contact Caroline for more information about the project in general.

Networking meeting

The team taking forward the Networking award, led by Chris Deegan, met this morning in the SQA offices in Glasgow. The purpose of the meeting was to finalise the draft framework for the HND Computer Networking qualification.

Looking around the participants, their knowledge and experience was evident in the quality of the discussions. I'm fortunate to have people of this quality involved in the development.

Vendor certification is important in every HN award but it is particularly important in this one, so we spent a lot of time talking about Microsoft, Cisco and other vendor awards to ensure that they are fully reflected in this new award.

Contact Chris for more information about the Networking award, contact Gerry about the overall HN review, or contact Caroline about the overall project.

There will be a public consultation on all of the draft frameworks in the (very) near future.