Subjects & Qualifications

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Teaching Materials

Electronic Teaching Materials

The SQA provides electronic teaching materials in a range of formats. All levels are available to download and are free to centres. Centres are free to amend these course materials to suit their students' requirements, however the SQA reserves the copyright on the original materials and centres cannot re-sell these materials in any way. The current PC Passport materials consist of:

instructor guides and instructor samples of all completed exercises
student workbooks which have a basic skills theme running through every subject
student exercise books which have practice exercises to re-enforce knowledge and understanding

Sample exercise files are also supplied for subject areas for students to use.

LOGO: PC Passport.

Current PC Passport materials

Access the current suite of PC Passport teaching materials.

Refreshed PC Passport materials

Access the Refreshed PC Passport teaching materials

In addition to these teaching materials there are a number of other options for teaching resources. These include:

Microsoft Official Step-By-Step courseware and Microsoft Press books are ideal. These may be significantly discounted if your centre is part of the Microsoft Academy Program.
IC3 materials that cover all three topics in the Certiport Internet, Computing Core Certification. These are significantly discounted if your centre is part of the Microsoft IT Academy program. Find out more about this program at: http://www.cardonald.ac.uk/courses/course.asp?c_id=259

SQA have a strategic partnership with Leckie & Leckie to proivde a range of Success Guides for PC Passport at all three levels. The new Success Guides cover both the current and refreshed versions of PC Passport (new content for the refreshed version is included in the companion CD-ROM).

The refreshed version of PC Passport contains most of the same content as the original version, but does have some new and rearranged topics. Schools, colleges and students using Leckie & Leckie books will be able to continue to use these materials for most of their work.

Leckie & Leckie are providing bridging materials to fill in the gaps between the original and refreshed version of PC Passport. These bridging materials can be downloaded here.

Access the Leckie & Leckie website

The documents are provided as pdf files, which will be opened automatically on most computers. If you're not sure how to open and print the documents, ask your teacher or instructor to help.

PC Passport Course Notes - Beginner Level 2nd Edition

This second edition of the Beginner PC Passport Course Notes has been completely updated to provide comprehensive support for the revised SQA PC Passport course. The accessible text, practical format and clear colour layout will enable students to get the most from their study. The book covers all three assessment units - Word Processing, Spreadsheets and the Internet.

Access the Leckie & Leckie website - Beginner PC Passport.

PC Passport Course Notes - Intermediate Level 2nd Edition

This second edition of the Intermediate PC Passport Course Notes has been completely updated to provide comprehensive support for the revised SQA PC Passport course. The accessible text, practical format and clear colour layout will enable students to get the most from their study.

Access the Leckie & Leckie website - Intermediate PC Passport.

Teaching PC Passport

Each Unit has a notional duration between 20-40 hours. Therefore, the Beginner Course should take around 120 hours; the Intermediate Course should take around 140-160 hours; and the Advanced Course should take around 160-200 hours. However, you can take as much or as little time as you like. For example, some candidates may get through the Beginner course very quickly if they already possess some previous computing experience.

It is advisable that SQA centres offer candidates exposure to a wide range of hardware and software to ensure they have the knowledge and understanding to prepare for assessments.