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Chairman’s Introduction

Graham Houston I’m very pleased to introduce you to SQA’s Annual Review for 2008–2009.

I became Chairman of SQA in February ’09 — so I wasn’t here for the majority of the time covered by this review. However, it has become very clear to me, as I get to know the organisation and the people, that SQA is made up of professional, dedicated individuals who are committed to contributing to an education and training system that will help develop the future of the Scottish economy and deliver skills and qualifications to future generations.

2008–’09 was another busy and fulfilling year for all at SQA. The remit of our Accreditation role was expanded to cover a wider range of provision and ensure that we play a pro-active role in assisting the Scottish Government to implement the Skills Strategy.

In our Awarding role, we established a new Business Development and Customer Support Team to provide our customers with excellent customer service that focuses on their needs and supports their aspirations for the future.

We continued to provide qualifications, customised services and expert advice to businesses to help them re-skill and up-skill their staff — a service which has become invaluable to many in these difficult economic times.

We delivered a successful diet of exams and continued to develop innovative approaches to e-assessment for colleges. We also worked closely with the Scottish Government on the development of Curriculum for Excellence — which will see the largest change in National Qualifications for a generation.

We developed and further improved our website, providing further support materials, advice and information to our customers, stakeholders, appointees and learners.

Every year, we rely on around 15,000 appointees — including Examiners, Markers, Setters, Verifiers and Vetters — who generously give of their time to help us with our operations. To enhance the support we are able to offer our appointees, we have brought all the services we provide for them into our new Appointee Management team.

It has been a successful year for SQA thanks to the efforts of our staff, our partner organisations and the many education and training professionals throughout Scotland.

I do hope you enjoy reading our review of 2008–’09.