Managing Your SVQ Data

Approval

A full list of available SVQs is published each quarter in SVQ Update. You can only enter candidates for Group Awards and Units that you are approved to offer. If you need to seek approval this must be done using Form SA1(2). If you try to enter a candidate for an award you are not approved to offer, the entry will be rejected.

Registration - who and when

It is vital that a candidate has only one Scottish Candidate Number (SCN) as this record will hold details of his/her SQA achievements for life.

What to do if your candidate doesn't have or know their SCN

No candidate should be allocated more than one SCN - if you have access to SQA.net you can use it to search for a candidate?s SCN. Alternatively, speak to:

• Data Management
• the candidate's last centre

Look in the Operational Help Centre for guidance on the registration process.

If you come across a candidate who appears to have two or more SCNs please contact your Data Management Team who will arrange to have the numbers merged. Please e-mail: candidate.merge@sqa.org.uk

Changes to a candidate's details

Please make sure that you inform us of any changes to a candidate's personal details (eg change of address - we need to know where to send certificates).

• You can submit your centre's address for your candidates, but remember to change the address once they have left your centre. 
• Ask candidates if they are entered for an SQA qualification at another centre - that centre may have sent us a different address.

How to submit candidate entries to us

We will accept entries from you for SVQs throughout the year. You can find full details of the procedures for entering candidates in the Operational Help Centre, but you may find the following points useful.

Submitting entries

• It is good practice to wait until you have received confirmation that your registration details have been successfully processed and there are no errors before you submit entries.
  
   
• Codes - always use the up-to-date codes for approved awards and Units.
  
   
• If your candidate is completing a full Group Award (GA) you should ensure that the Group Award code is entered before or at the same time as the contributing Units. We cannot automatically enter candidates for the Units because many SVQs have options:
  - Enter the candidate for the Group Award code, and its anticipated
    completion date. The completion date for the Group Award is the
    date when the candidate is expected to have completed all of the
    contributing Units.
  - Enter the candidate for the contributing Units and, if they differ
    from the completion date of the Group Award, give the predicted
    completion dates for each of the Units. Entries for all the
    contributing Units do not have to be submitted at the same time
    as the entry for the Group Award.

• All SVQ candidates must be entered with us before the lapsing period for the SVQ. The lapsing period is when the SVQ reaches the end of its accreditation period and has been overtaken by another SVQ or withdrawn. The length of the lapsing period depends upon the level of an SVQ:
  - levels 1 and 2 - two years before the finish date
  - level 3 - three years before the finish date
  - levels 4 and 5 - four years before the finish date
  
   
• Finish date (or Expiry Date) of the SVQ - this is the date after which no further candidates can be certificated. Do not enter or result your candidates after this date - make sure the candidates, assessors and verifiers know about these dates. Look on SQA.net where you will find these dates clearly shown.

We will send you confirmation of your entries once they have been created. At the same time we will inform you if there were any problems processing your data, tell you the nature of the problem and, where appropriate, how to resolve it.

Free-standing Units

Some candidates may wish to undertake individual free-standing Units, without embarking on an SVQ. Others may choose to do individual Units which will contribute to an SVQ in future years. We will accept entries for free-standing Units throughout the year.

You must indicate when the individual Units will be completed. As with SVQ entries, a period of at least 10 weeks notice must be given from submission of the entry to SQA to the indicated completion date.

What we do with the information you send us

Processing Reports

When entry information is submitted to us, whether on paper forms or in an electronic format, it will be processed on our Awards Processing System. The most efficient way to send in your data is through file transfer, using SQA.net - speak to your Customer Support Manager you want to know more about this.

After we have processed the entry information, we will send you a processing report. SQA.net file transfer submissions will receive a report indicating:

• what has been processed
• where there are errors

You should check this record against your own information to ensure that it is accurate.

The details will be subject to a number of checks to ensure that they conform to rules we have put in place. If any of the submissions fails these checks, a Processing Report, highlighting the reason for the rejection, will be sent to you for resolution. If you receive a Processing Report, you will need to review the cases highlighted and re-submit the information for the candidate(s) concerned. We will then process this updated information, subjecting it to the same checks as the original submission.

We will provide the same type of reporting system to you for updates to entry information.

Your Data Management Team can assist you with the procedures for entering candidates for SVQs.

Submitting Unit results

You can submit entries and results (ie Pass, Fail and Withdraw) throughout the year for Scottish Vocational Qualifications.

You must provide a result of Pass, Fail or Withdraw for all candidates by the completion date of the SVQ (though completion dates can be amended). Remember that, to receive an SVQ, candidates must achieve a pass in all of the contributing Units of the SVQ.

Check the following before sending the results.

Group Awards

Candidates must be entered for Group Awards - if they have only been entered for Units they will not receive the Group Award, even if they have completed all the Units which make up that award. 

Remember that all Unit assessments are subject to SQA?s quality assurance procedures. If a Unit is selected for external verification, results remain provisional until completion of the verification process.

Avoid delays in certification

To make sure candidates are certificated without delay:

• Send candidate results as soon as you receive them.
  
   
• Check and action any reports which are sent to you concerning these results.
  
   
• Check the Completion Date for the Unit/Group Award you are resulting as you may have to amend the date. If you need to change the completion date, you can do this using SQA.net file transfer or send us an Entry Update Form (EU00/EU01) and then (once you have received confirmation that this has been processed) send in the results.

For more information see the Operational Help Centre.

Withdrawing an entry

If a candidate leaves your centre, or decides not to proceed with the qualification, you should withdraw the candidate from the Unit or Group Award as soon as possible. For more information about withdrawing candidates please refer to the Operational Help Centre.

For more details of the Registration, Entries and Results process, please refer to the Operational Help Centre and for recommended reading/further information, see the following publications.