Scottish Candidate Number services – colleges, employers and training providers

We are making changes to the arrangements for candidate registration which will affect colleges, employers and training providers. These changes are designed to simplify procedures and at the same time reduce the potential number of re-registrations (duplicates). We will put in place a Scottish Candidate Number (SCN) allocation service.

The new procedure will allow centres to submit the standard registration details to us but not including an SCN. We will match the details against our candidate database. If we find a match we will let you know the SCN that already exists for the candidate. If there is no record of the candidate, we will provide you with a new SCN.

We'll send more detailed information about this to all our centres at the end of May.

New Corporate Plan 2006-2009

With the new financial year beginning on 1 April, we have begun to implement our new Corporate and Business Plan for 2006/09. The plan sets out our main areas of focus for the next three years, and includes our Mission, Vision and Values Statements. It forms the basis of our budget, and is approved by ministers at the Scottish Executive.

Our vision is 'to be recognised nationally and internationally as a leader in qualifications and assessment'.

Our mission is to 'work in partnership to provide high quality, recognised and relevant qualifications and assessment'.

Our values are:

• Quality
• Integrity
• Innovation
• Partnership
• Service

Introducing Advanced Higher

We have produced a new information leaflet in association with the Scottish Council of Independent Schools (SCIS) and the Headteachers' Association of Scotland (HAS) to promote our Advanced Higher National Qualifications.The leaflet Introducing Advanced Higher is free and can be obtained by quoting publication code BD2803 to our Customer Contact Centre on 0845 279 1000 or e-mail customer@sqa.org.uk Alternatively, you can access it via our website.

We are also developing information sheets for the individual subjects at Advanced Higher, and you can also find these on our website.

Partners in Learning announce 2006 Challenge Fund

In our November issue we reported on the cash grants for schools, available through a partnership between Microsoft and SQA, as part of Microsoft's Partners in Learning initiative. We are now pleased to report that Partners in Learning has announced the opening of this year's application period for teachers who wish to apply for small grants for projects that involve ICT in its widest sense. Teachers are advised to read the Request for Proposals (RFP) and Guidance before submitting applications which need to be received by 2 June.

SQA.net certificate expiry

If your certificate to run SQA.net has expired, you will need to re-register your PC for a new certificate.

You can do this by visiting the SQA.net website.

You will then be asked to enter your user name and password and complete the two-stage registration process.

After you have completed step 1, use your backspace button to complete step 2. As part of step 2, you will be asked to submit your e-mail address and telephone number and to complete a 'comments' box. It is important that you insert the following comment 'Re-registration certificate expiry'.

You will then receive an e-mail with a link containing your new digital certificate. Click on this link and the new digital certificate will be issued for your PC.

You can check the current status of your certificate by following the procedure below:

• go into Internet Options
  

• pull down the Tools menu and select the Contents tab

• click on the Certificate button

• Under Personal tab you should see your username, and to the right of this your certificate expiry date is shown.

Show Racism the Red Card - Schools' Arts competition

The 'Show Racism the Red Card' campaign, part of the Scottish Executive's 'One Scotland, Many Cultures' campaign held its annual Schools’ Arts Competition Winners event at Hampden recently.

The competition helps schools promote racial equality by providing teachers and pupils with the opportunity to examine racism and anti-racist strategies.

The overall national prize-winners, who received a cheque for £1,000 for their school and a host of football prizes for themselves, are Nina Haveron and Emily Pollock from Greenock Academy. Many congratulations to Nina and Emily for producing such a fantastic piece of work.

Nina and Emily are seen in the photograph with Neil MacGowan, Business Manager - Customer Relations and Marketing at SQA.

A Curriculum for Excellence

A Curriculum for Excellence was published in November 2004 following the National Debate on Education in Scotland. It set out, for the first time, values, purposes and principles for the Curriculum 3 to 18 for all children and young people.

The ministerial response to A Curriculum for Excellence initiated a programme of work to put these values, purposes and principles into practice. The Programme Board, which includes SQA's Chief Executive, Anton Colella, was established to advise ministers and to steer the programme.

The Programme Board have recently published this paper, a curriculum for excellence - progress and proposals, which marks the next milestone in putting A Curriculum for Excellence into practice and is relevant to teachers and educators of children and young people aged 3 to 18.

Co-ordinator Exchange

In recognition of the importance of their role, in November 2005 SQA asked Co-ordinators to share their views with us about the following:

• key areas of difficulty in my role as Co-ordinator
• suggestions for improving these difficulties
• examples of good practice in my centre
• other comment

The volume of responses was somewhat disappointing (less than a 10% response rate), but from those we did receive, we were able to identify two key issues:

• data entry/exchange
• volumes of information

New developments and opportunities in Personal and Social Education

The National Qualifications Review in Personal and Social Education (PSE) is proceeding and we would like to give you an update on developments.

Revised Units and Courses at Access 3 and Intermediate 1 will be available from August 2007, for certification in 2008. Revised Units and Courses at Intermediate 2 and Higher will be available from August 2008 for Course certification in 2009.

We will keep you updated with all the news and developments regarding the revised Units and Courses via update letters and future issues of the e-zine.

Development of Internet Safety NQ

We are working towards the development of the world's first National Qualification on internet safety. Various media stories have highlighted the importance of using the internet safely and this new qualification aims to explain how to protect yourself when you're online. It's designed for school pupils, parents, adults working with children and 'silver surfers' - in fact anyone who regularly uses the internet.

The qualification will consist of a National Unit at SCQF level 5 (Intermediate 2) -appropriately titled Internet Safety. The contents include: identity theft, intellectual property rights, online security (such as virus protection and firewalls), data protection, and anti-spam strategies.

Internet Safety will be our first e-only qualification - that is, the first qualification that is only available online. Both learning and assessment will be delivered over the internet. This project involves a number of partners including Learning and Teaching Scotland, Microsoft, British Telecom, BBC, Strathclyde Police and child protection agencies.

The project aims to make the qualification available to centres later this year. Contact Bobby Elliott (bobby.elliott@sqa.org.uk) for more information. Or you can follow the development of the award via the blog.

SQA and OPITO MOU

We are delighted to announce that we have signed a three-year Memorandum of Understanding with OPITO (a not-for-profit industry-owned organisation delivering innovative skills solutions) at the recent Scottish Offshore Achievement Awards.

Chief Executive of OPITO, David Doig said, 'The signing of the MOU further strengthens the long-term relationship between OPITO and SQA. We believe our partnership with SQA will build on our success and increase the delivery of high quality training and Scottish standards and qualification frameworks.'

SQA Chief Executive, Anton Colella, responded, 'Clearly we at SQA welcome this development too. This is a further indicator that we work closely with our industry partners to ensure candidates have the opportunity to work towards a clear training path in their chosen career.'