Graded Units

Once the Units have been successfully validated or are in final draft stage, you should begin to develop the Graded Unit(s) for the Group Award. The purposes of Graded Units are to:

• demonstrate that the candidate has achieved the principal aims of the Group Award
• demonstrate the candidate’s ability to integrate the knowledge and understanding gained from other Units making up the Group Award
• grade candidate performance

Graded Units are specific to the Group Award being delivered, and reflect the principal aims of that Group Award. This means that they will also clearly reflect the uniqueness of the title of the Group Award.

Graded Units are validated at the same time as the Group Award.

Graded Units can be validated as part of HNC/HNDs by centres with devolved authority for validating SQA Group Awards.

Guidance on writing Graded Units

Graded Units will usually be projects but may also be examinations. Guidance on designing the assessment instrument and assessing the candidate should be included in the specification. It is also important that Graded Units clearly identify the aims of the Group Award which are being assessed. Further guidance on writing Graded Units is given in:

• notes of guidance on Graded Units (see Notes for Guidance Note 3)
• completing the Graded Unit specification (see Notes for Guidance Note 4)
• designing an assessment task for a project-based Graded Unit (see Notes for Guidance Note 5)
• designing an assessment task for an examination-based Graded Unit (see Notes for Guidance Note 6)
• Graded Unit specification shell - examination (Centre Tool 15)
• Graded Unit specification shell - project (Centre Tool 16)

Validation of Graded Units

Remember, Graded Units are validated along with the Group Award by the Group Award Validation Panel. This means that for a specialist single centre development this would be organised by the college, and for a specialist collaborative development this would be organised by the nominated centre.

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