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Education and training are becoming more global. With increasing mobility of labour, demand is growing for education and qualifications that cross national borders. New developments in online learning and assessment mean that there are new opportunities as well as challenges for SQA and similar organisations. We are well placed to respond to these because of the nature of our qualifications system and our long experience of working in Scotland, the UK and other countries.
Our ambition is for SQA to be regarded as an international leader in learning and assessment. To achieve this we have identified three key areas for action:
1. International benchmarking and intelligence
2. Promoting Scottish education and training worldwide
3. Supporting education and training worldwide
Measuring ourselves against the best, keeping abreast of new policies and practices, and making a contribution to European and global developments will help to ensure Scottish qualifications are relevant and respected, and that they continue to be seen as leading-edge and innovative. We will do this through a range of activities, including:
Our aim is to ensure that the Scottish system is visibly represented and that our qualifications are recognised and respected internationally. We will also support the work of our partners and centres in Scotland in their efforts to promote the system and its qualifications. Our activities in this area will include:
SQA is committed to playing its part in contributing to the development of education internationally through sharing expertise and products. Our range of activities will include:
International consultancy – we will continue to work with Scottish and international partners to bid for and manage international consultancy projects to support national reform programmes in developing and transition countries. These are funded from a variety of sources including donor agencies.
SQA’s consultancy track record covers projects in Central and Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle-East. Target countries for international consultancy will continue to be selected according to a number of criteria including: Scottish Government and UK government priority countries and availability of external funding sources to support development work.
International awarding – international awarding goes hand-in-hand with our consultancy activity. One of the great strengths of Scotland’s Unit-based qualifications system is that it is highly flexible and can be easily and quickly adapted for different purposes. This makes it a useful base for developing systems to suit other countries’ needs. The work we are doing in China is a good example of this approach. Here we are combining our experience of international consultancy with our expertise in qualifications development and quality assurance to meet the needs of China’s education reform and promote Scottish products and services in a bigger arena.
International awarding is managed by SQA’s International Team. Follow this link for more details about SQA International and its activities.