Notifying SQA Of Proposals

Once you (as the nominated centre for a specialist collaborative development, or as a single specialist centre) decide to embark upon the review of the qualification, you should notify SQA’s HN and SVQ Product Team using the form DA/HN/P1 Notification of proposed specialist Group Award development. (See SQA Form 1.)

You should use this form to notify us of the development of a new HNC and/or HND or the revision of an existing HNC and/or HND. The form asks you for:

• administrative details such as your centre name and contact
• details of the Group Award you wish to develop or revise
• whether it is a specialist collaborative or specialist single centre development
• if a specialist collaborative - the names of the other centres involved
• the planned Group Award validation date
• the subject areas of the Units which it may include

The form will be passed to the appropriate Qualifications Manager, and copies with relevant Units highlighted will also be sent to those Business Managers where Unit developments are intended in their subject areas.

Although SQA has given authority through quality contracts to centres for Group Award validation, the Qualifications Manager will advise on whether the proposed development is unique or whether there is potential duplication or overlap with other proposed or current developments. SQA will allocate a project number to the development at this point, and will return the form with the Qualifications Manager’s comments to the named centre contact.

There is no formal requirement for a centre with devolved authority for validation to establish and maintain contact with SQA during the development or revision of a specialist single-centre Group Award. However, by keeping in touch with SQA, you can avoid overlap with existing or proposed provision under development elsewhere. Potential areas of overlap will be monitored by the appropriate Qualifications Manager. Good communications will also ensure that the relevant Qualifications Manager is able to build in time for commenting on draft Units and planning Unit validation when required.