GLOSSARY OF TERMS

Approval	The process by which SQA or a centre with devolved authority gives approval to offer a Group Award. This will usually entail a check on resources, staff, learning and teaching materials and assessments. Once a Group Award has been identified as a valid Group Award approval will be applied for so that the Group Award can be added to the centre’s list of approved Group Awards for delivery. SQA will inform SAAS of any new HN approved courses.
Arrangements document	This is a shortened validation document produced by SQA or the originating centre or nominated centre, for awards. It will not include appendices or evidence of market research but is a summary of the Group Award with sufficient detail to enable a centre to offer the Group Award.
Business Manager	SQA Manager responsible for a group of Qualifications Managers in linked areas.
Design Principles	The current format which new HNCs and HNDs should follow. A summary of the principles is shown in Appendix 1.
Design Rules	These rules set the format followed by the Pilot courses which were run from 2001 and should not now be used to formulate new Group Awards.
Graded Units	Graded Units will be used to determine the candidate’s ability to retain and integrate the knowledge gained in the individual Units of a Group Award. A candidate can attain the grade of A, B or C. Each Group Award will have its own Graded Unit. A Graded Unit can be a Project or an Examination. This will be determined by the qualification design team and confirmed at the time of validation. Graded Units are validated at the Group Award Validation Event.
Higher National Development Managers	Seconded from FE colleges, a team of four HN Development Managers have been appointed to help centres develop their single-centre specialist provision to ensure that all Group Awards come under the SCQF framework by 2008.
Qualification Design Team	Staff who are working on designing the qualification. This may be known as the Core Team or the Course Team or the Programme Team or it may be members of a consortia but their role is essentially to suggest the direction of the Group Award and co-ordinate the responses from consultation to ensure that the Group Award meets the needs of the market.
Qualification Manager	SQA Managers responsible for Group Awards within a subject area. Qualifications Managers are responsible for either HN and SVQ or NQ qualifications.
Specialist single-centre and specialist collaborative awards	HN developments will either be specialist awards or consortia/SQA led awards. Generally specialist awards will be developed for a small identifiable market sector, peculiar to one centre/s or geographical area. Generally, those which are specialist awards will be supported by the centre’s HN Development Manager and those which are consortia/SQA led Group Awards will be supported by the Qualifications Manager and may be assisted by the HN Development Manager. Single-centre awards are developed by one centre. Specialist collaborative awards are developed by a group of centres
Validation	Validation is the process by which SQA ensures that all new, revised or amended qualifications are valid, credible and fit for purpose. For individual Units this process is carried out by SQA Officer decision and supported by stakeholder consultation, by a formal validation meeting or by any combination of these methods. Once the Units have been validated they will receive a Superclass II code and will be coded and included in the SQA system. Group Awards at HNC/HND level can be validated either by SQA or by a centre if it has devolved authority by submitting a Validation Proposal document to a Validation Panel at a Validation Event. This Toolkit is designed to inform centres on the process of validation for specialist single-centre or specialist collaborative awards.
Validation Document	Once a validation event has been carried out and the Group Award is deemed to be a valid Group Award, a final document incorporating any suggested changes and including evidence of any conditions placed by the Validation Panel will be produced. This document will be closely modelled on the Validation Proposal document but in its final form it will be called a Validation document.