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Developing professional relationships

Understanding schools as organisations

Discerning how they develop as people

Recognising the effective way to protect them

and so much more!

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What is QCF (Qualifications and Credit Framework)?

The Qualifications and Credit Framework has been set up by the government to help you get vocational qualifications and credits in the most efficient way. It also recognises that you probably have a very busy schedule and so cannot attend a day college on set days every week. So they have carefully developed a scheme that allows you to study in your own time at your own pace but gain recognised qualifications and build credits towards higher courses.

The accepted courses are split into units each “worth” a number of credits, so if you then take another course with some of the same units you do not have to complete these but simply carry through your credits from a previous course and concentrate on the new units. QCF accredited courses have been audited, accepted and accredited by the QCF and thus have the highest guarantee of standard and employer recognition.

The title of your course is split into 3 parts: 1. Level, 2. Qualification and 3. Content.

1. Level

Levels run from Entry and the 1 through to 8. They indicate the degree of difficulty of the course and hence the level of the qualification.

Level Examples

• Level 2 – GCSE Grade A-C, BTEC 1st Diplomas and Certificates, Level 2 NVQ's
• Level 3 – A Levels, BTEC Diplomas, Certificates and Awards, Level 3 NVQ's
• Level 4 – BTEC Professional Diplomas, Certificates and Awards, Level 4 NVQ's
• Level 5 – HNC's, HND's, Level 5 NVQ's

2. Qualifications

There are 3 qualifications and these indicate the general length of the course and how many credits they carry (each credit is about 10 hours work).

Qualification Examples

• Award – 1 to 12 credits – 10 to 120 hours work
• Certificate – 13 to 36 credits – 130 to 360 hours work
• Diploma – 37 and more credits – 370 hours work or more

3. Content

This gives an immediate guide as to what the course is about and helps you to see if the course may be suitable for your circumstances and whether or not to get more details.

So putting those facts together the course you are currently looking at, Level 3 Award in Supporting Teaching and Learning in Schools, splits down as follows:

1. Level – Level 3 – Approximately A-Level standard
2. Qualification – Award with 12 credits – Approximately 120 hours in length
3. Content – Supporting Teaching and Learning in Schools

Other Terms

Units

This is the very clever bit!

Each course is split down into learning modules called units and each unit has a value measured in credits. Each unit of learning is unique and although that same unit may appear in another related course you only have to study it once!

Not only that, you accumulate credits as you take more courses and so over a period of time can build a very “weighty” qualification.