Evaluating Group Award review information
Once all the required information has been gathered and evaluated, it should be possible to determine which of the following options is most appropriate to the qualification:
withdraw - insufficient uptake to sustain a meaningful national standard and/or generate sufficient revenue to meet ongoing delivery costs
revise/create a new qualification - to reflect changes suggested by delivering centres, external verifiers, legislation, technology etc.
leave as is - reasonable uptake and still meeting qualification aims
Note: insufficient uptake does not necessarily mean that a qualification has to be withdrawn as there could be a strong rationale for the retention of a qualification based on:
- educational, cultural, social, economic, political need, supported by proposals for ways of reducing costs and/or financial sponsors to maintain Group Award.
- evidence of specific and justifiable reasons influencing initial take-up of the Group Award resulting in low entries, and that this situation has now changed and uptake will increase.
- evidence that the Group Award is needed for progression
- evidence of increasing uptake over a period of five years
- evidence of a sufficient number of experienced staff to deliver and maintain the Group Award, eg by providing appointees for verification/external assessment