Composition and role of the Validation Panel
All members of the panel are equal partners at the validation meeting. Their role is to act as independent judges of the proposed qualification, and to make a validation decision at the end of the meeting.
A validation panel comprises:
- an experienced chairperson from education or industry. This can be one of the panel members below, or in addition to these members
- educationist (at least one)
- industrialist and/or Sector Skills Council representative (at least one)
- if the qualification is designed to articulate with degree programmes, a Higher Education representative
- an SQA Officer
- a centre representative (if the proposal has been submitted by a centre or small group of centres)
Panels may be larger if a greater range of expertise is required, but they should not be smaller. The panel should consist of, at a minimum, three people - four if the proposal has been submitted by a centre or small group of centres.
Role of validation panel members
Validation panel members should prepare for the meeting by reading the Group Award specification thoroughly, evaluating it against Checklist 6 - Group Award validation (120 KB) and noting any issues and/or comments they wish to raise with the QDT.
Though broad suggestions for improvements to the Group Award specification will be welcome, detailed proposals for re-writing any aspect of it or highlighting any typographical or grammatical errors should not form part of the decisions of the validation panel members. The representative(s) from the QDT (normally the Group Award specification writer) will be expected to take account of any discussion and the final validated Group Award specification will go through SQA's proof reading and editorial process prior to publication.
Note: if you want printed copies of the Guide for validation panel members you can request them by emailing My centre. Quote publication code: AA6044, publication date: August 2012 and number required. Delivery normally takes 2-3 days.
The role of each member of the team is fully explained in SQA's Guide for Validation Panel Members .