PLEASE READ THIS INFORMATION BEFORE YOU ORDER

Before ordering, you may like to sign up for a free My Qualifications Scotland account. My Qualifications Scotland will let you see all the qualifications you completed since 1995. It will also enable you to check the name and address we have on your record.

My Qualifications Scotland

The charge for a replacement certificate is £40.

All certificates come on hologrammed Qualifications Scotland certificate paper.

All qualifications gained by you from 1995 onwards to date will appear on your certificate, whether they were awarded by Qualifications Scotland or by the previous awarding body, SQA.

Your certificate will be produced in the name we have on your record. If you want your certificate to have an updated name change, please follow the Candidate Change of Name Declaration Form instructions

It is our policy to replace your certificate free of charge if you were certificated within the past 4 months and there has been no change to your record. If this applies to you, please contact us by completing this form.

If your order is to be sent outside the UK, we recommend using the courier option at £30 to track your order.

If you wish to send your certificate securely within the UK, you have an option for recorded delivery. This has an additional fee of £6.50. This service is not available for international delivery.

If we cannot find your record, we will contact you by phone or email for more details.

Your certificate

If your qualifications were gained at one of our predecessor organisations before 1995, your replacement certificate will not look like your original certificate. Your achievements will be listed on a Certified Statement, and it will be printed on secure Qualifications Scotland hologram certification paper.

If you achieved a group award, such as an SVQ, HNC, HND, NC etc, there is no separate commemorative certificate to show this achievement. These qualifications will be reported on your Certified Statement.

Proceed with order

Care Experienced Young People

Qualifications Scotland is a proud Corporate Parent and is pleased to be able to offer a replacement certificate without charge for any care experienced learner.

This service applies to any learner who has been or is currently in care or from a looked after background, at any stage of their life.  This care may have been provided in one of many different settings, such as in residential care, foster care, kinship care or looked after at home with a supervision requirement.

The replacement certificate order must be certified by a professional person who can confirm your care status.

More information about Qualifications Scotland as a corporate parent and the replacement certificate service

A syllabus is a document describing the content of a final examination-based course. This will contain the subjects and time spent on each subject.

We can provide syllabuses for most further education courses taken between 1955 – 1993.

If you would like further information on a course syllabus, please contact the team or telephone 0345 213 6015

If the course is / was assessed throughout the year and after 1995 you can download the unit specification from our website unit specifications.

This service is for companies and educational organisations who wish to confirm that candidates have gained their qualifications and that the grades and years provided are correct. We can send confirmation by email and/or letter.

Sometimes candidates want us to authenticate qualifications for other educational organisations such as World Education Services (WES). We've found this type of organisation prefers replacement certificates to be sent directly from us.

Please be aware as Qualifications Scotland is the awarding body, we do not hold details on the following:

• Mode of study (full or part time)
• Attendance
• Time taken to complete qualification

As organisations and candidates have different requirements for Authentications, please contact us with your requirements and we will respond with your next steps.

The Scottish education certification system

The Scottish education system does not issue official high school diplomas or leavers’ certificates. Learners are certificated on leaving school only for the qualifications that they have studied for and achieved. Most learners complete at least four years of secondary (high) school education, and can leave at the end of four years, having sat national qualifications.

They can, if they want to, remain at school for another year or two years to complete additional national qualifications.

Some schools issue learners with leaving certificates, but these are not official Qualifications Scotland documents and we do not hold them on file.

Further information about Qualifications Scotland qualifications.

World Education Services (WES)

To authenticate qualifications from Qualifications Scotland with WES, you will need to order a replacement certificate. You will be asked to provide your WES reference number when you order. We will securely upload your certificates to the WES online portal once your order is processed.

On request, we can send you the hard copy of your certificates to an address of your choice.

Qualifications Scotland holds records from the following previous organisations. This list gives the name of the awarding bodies and the years they were active:

• Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA): 1995 to 2025
• Scottish Certificate of Education: 1986 to 1994
• Scottish Vocational Educational Council (SCOTVEC): 1986 to 1994
• Scottish Business Education Council (SCOTBEC): 1975 to 1985
• Scottish Technical Educational Council (SCOTEC): 1975 to 1985
• Scottish Examination Board (SEB): 1962 to 1984

We also hold records for the Scottish Association for National Certificates and Diplomas (SANCAD) and the Scottish Council for Commercial, Administrative and Professional Education (SCCAPE).

Qualifications Scotland is an awarding body, we can only give certification dates of qualifications you have gained.

We do not hold school leaver’s certificates or class registers. You may be able to get this from your local authority.

If you require further information on the grading system used by any of the previous Scottish awarding bodies, please contact replacement.certificates@qualifications.gov.scot.