Glossary

Scottish education and training is full of acronyms and special terminology. These are some of the ones that you'll come across in everyday use by SQA, but it is by no means a definitive or exhaustive list!

A
ACE	Adult and Continuing Education
A Curriculum for Excellence	A programme to improve the learning and attainment of children and young people in Scotland, being taken forward within a strong partnership between SEED, SQA, LTS and HMIE. View A Curriculum for Excellence website
ADES	Association of Directors of Education in Scotland View ADES website
AEAS	Association of Educational Advisers in Scotland View AEAS website
APL	Accreditation of Prior Learning (the process which enables candidates to receive certification for past achievements. These may have been acquired through work experience, leisure pursuits or training. APL focuses on the competences which can be demonstrated at the time)
Appeals	The process where a centre can appeal against either a candidate's external assessment result or a quality assurance decision against the centre
Approved Centre	The term used by SQA to describe the place where candidates undertake qualifications
APS	Awards Processing System (SQA's computer system for processing candidate registrations, entries and results)
ASC	Association of Scottish Colleges
ASCETT	Advisory Scottish Council for Education and Training Targets
Assessment	The process of collecting and interpreting evidence of candidate performance
Assessment arrangements	Alternative instruments of assessment and/or support to enable a candidate to demonstrate competence against the qualification standards
Assessment on demand	The use of the assessment process to confirm competence without requiring candidates to undertake any further training
Assessor	The person who applies the assessment process to candidates for their achievement of a qualification
Assessor and Verifier Units	Nationally-devised Units which centre staff can complete to prove their competence in the assessment process

C
Candidate	The term given to a person undertaking an SQA qualification
CBAL	Community Based Adult Learning
CGLI	City and Guilds of London Institute View CGLI website
CLS	Community Learning Scotland View CLS website
Cognitive competence	The ability to apply knowledge and intellectual skills
Core Skills	Transferable skills and knowledge which underpin lifelong learning, work and social life, and are assessed as part of all SQA's qualification families
CoSLA	Convention of Scottish Local Authorities View CoSLA website
Credit transfer	The process by which recognised competences or formal qualifications in one area are accepted as evidence of achievement in another area
Criterion-referenced assessment	Assessment which seeks to measure what candidates can do against previously established or pre-determined standards of performance
CSM	Customer Support Manager (SQA member of staff who looks after the interests of specific centres)
CSYS	Certificate of Sixth Year Studies (discontinued)

D
DfES	Department for Education and Skills (DfES) View DfES website
DGSA	Dangerous Goods Safety Advisers View DGSA website
DSO	Data Solutions Officer

E
EBP	Education Business Partnerships
Edexel	English awarding body responsible for GCSE and A level qualifications View Edexcel website
EIS	Educational Institute of Scotland View EIS website
ESOR	Electronic Statement of Results
EV	External Verifier (the SQA official who checks that the assessment process for SVQs has been valid, reliable and practicable)
Evidence	What the candidate produces to prove competence/ability against the qualification
External assessment	Assessment of a candidate's competence/ability against a qualification under exam conditions

F
FE	Further Education
FEDA	Further Education Development Agency (for England) - now called the Learning and Skills Development Agency (LSDA) View LSDA website
Formative assessment	Formal assessments which provide feedback to candidates and teaching/lecturing staff without being recorded for external purposes

G
GCSE	General Certificate of Secondary Education (for England, Wales and Northern Ireland - equivalent to Standard Grade)
GNVQ	General National Vocational Qualification (a qualification in England, Wales and Northern Ireland)
Graded Units	Applicable only to HNC/Ds, this is a stand-alone credit which proves candidate competence in being able to integrate all the Unit skills and knowledge, to demonstrate that they have achieved the principal aim of the Group Award
GRC	Grade Related Criteria (the criteria for distinguishing between various levels of performance in National Qualifications)
GSVQ	General Scottish Vocational Qualification (discontinued)
GTC	General Teaching Council for Scotland View GTC website

H
HAS	Headteachers Association of Scotland View HAS website
HE	Higher Education
HIE	Highlands and Islands Enterprise View HIE website
HMCIE	Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Education
HMIE	Her Majesty's Inspector of Education
HN	Higher National
HNC	Higher National Certificate
HND	Higher National Diploma

I
ICT	Information and Communications Technology
ILA	Individual Learning Accounts
Independent assessment	An instrument of assessment applied by the awarding body to improve the rigour and credibility of assessment decisions across different awarding bodies and centres
Instruments of assessment	A means of generating evidence of a candidate's competence. Sometimes referred to as 'approaches to assessment' or 'assessment methodology', eg observation checklist, project specification or peer report
Integrated assessment	Where the application of an instrument of assessment allows for assessment of more than one Unit within a qualification
Internal assessment	Assessment of a candidate's competence which occurs within an approved centre
Internal Verifier/ Moderator	The person within the centre who checks that the assessment process has been valid, reliable and practicable

K
KU	Knowledge and Understanding

L
LEC	Local Enterprise Company
LSC	Learning and Skills Council View LSC website
LTS	Learning and Teaching Scotland View LTS website

M
MA	Modern Apprenticeship
Marking scheme	Pre-determined answers against a Unit/Course specification which is used to judge candidates' evidence

N
NAB	National Assessment Bank
NASG	National Assessment Steering Group
NASUWT	National Association of Schoolmasters/Union of Women Teachers (Scotland) View NASUWT website
NC	National Course or National Certificate
NGFL	National Grid for Learning View NGFL website
NOS	National Occupational Standards (see Occupational standards)
NQ	National Qualification
NQTG	National Qualifications Task Group
NRA	National Record of Achievement
NVQ	National Vocational Qualification

O
Occupational standards	In SVQs, standards determined by a Sector Skills Council relating to skills and knowledge considered relevant to particular jobs in that industrial sector
OCR	Oxford Cambridge and RSA Examinations (English awarding body) View OCR website
Open learning	Learning which is flexibly designed to make education and training widely accessible. Includes flexistudy, open access, distance learning, learning by appointment and independent study
OU	Open University View Open University website

P
PA	Principal Assessor
PAT	Professional Association of Teachers View PAT website
PBNC	Project-based National Course
PDA	Professional Development Award (SQA qualifications made up of Higher National or SVQ Units)
Portfolio	A folder or booklet containing indexed and organised candidate evidence relevant to a qualification
Practical competence	The candidate's ability to perform manual and/or behavioural tasks
PS	Problem Solving - one of the Core Skills
PSAG	Projects and Standards Approval Group (for SVQs)

Q
QA	Quality Assurance
QAA	Quality Assurance Agency (responsible for QA in Higher Education) View QAA website
QAM	Quality Assurance Manager. Official appointed by SQA to check a centre's quality assurance management systems in respect of delivery of qualifications
QCA	Qualifications and Curriculum Authority View QCA website

R
RER	Registrations, Entries and Results - collective term for these SQA procedures, and the manual that covers them (though this has been replaced with Operational Help Centre). You may also see references to REUR - Registrations, Entries and Unit Results
RET	Record of Education and Training (an earlier form of the SQC)
RSA	Royal Society of Arts Examination Board

S
SACCA	Scottish Advisory Committee on Credit and Access
SCE	Scottish Certificate of Education (now discontinued)
SCIS	Scottish Council of Independent Schools View SCIS website
SCN	Scottish Candidate Number
SCOTCAT	Scottish Credit Accumulation and Transfer Scheme
SCOTie	SQA individual enrolment system (predecessor of the APS)
SCQF	Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework View SCQF website
SCRE	Scottish Council for Research in Education View SCRE website
SEED	Scottish Government Education Department View SEED website
SEELLD	Scottish Government Enterprise and Lifelong Learning Department View SEELD website
SEN	Special Education Needs or Scottish Enterprise National View SEN website
SFEFC	Scottish Further Education Funding Council View SFEFC website
SFEU	Scottish Further Education Unit View SFEU website
SFHEA	Scottish Further and Higher Education Association View SFHEA website
SGA	Scottish Group Award
SHEFC	Scottish Higher Education Funding Council View SHEFC website
SLN	Special Learning Needs
SME	Small to medium-sized enterprise
SPA	Scottish Progression Award
SPTC	Scottish Parent Teacher Council
SQC	Scottish Qualifications Certificate
SQMS	Scottish Quality Management System View SQMS website
SSA Scot	Sector Skills Alliance Scotland View SSA Scot website
SSBA	Scottish School Board Association View SSBA website
SSC	Sector Skills Council
SSDA	Sector Skills Development Agency View SSDA website
SSTA	Scottish Secondary Teachers Association View SSTA website
STN	Special Training Needs
SUfI	Scottish University for Industry View SUfI website
Summative assessment	Assessment which measures the final level of achievement of a student and is used for certification
SV	Systems Verifier
SVQ	Scottish Vocational Qualification
SWAP	Scottish Wider Access Programme View SWAP website
Systems Verifier	Official appointed by SQA to check a centre's quality assurance management systems in respect of delivery of qualifications

T
T & D	Training and Development

U
UCAS	Universities and Colleges Admission Service View UCAS website
UfI	University for Industry View UfI website
UHIP	University of the Highlands and Island Project
US	Universities Scotland View US website