Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF)

The Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF) was developed to meet the needs of Scotland's learners and was created by bringing together all Scottish mainstream qualifications into a single unified framework. It was developed in partnership by the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA), Universities Scotland, Quality Assurance Agency Scotland and the Scottish Executive, and was launched in December 2001.

It uses two measures to describe qualifications and learning programmes: level and credit. There are 12 levels within the Framework, which indicate the complexity of learning, and credit points which show the volume of learning undertaken to achieve the qualification.

The aim of the SCQF is to:

• Assist people of all ages and circumstances to access appropriate education and training over their lifetime to fulfil their personal, social and economic potential;
• Enable employers, learners and the public in general to understand the full range of Scottish qualifications, how they relate to each other and how different types of qualifications can contribute to improving the skills of the workforce.

The SCQF is also intended to help describe programmes of learning that lead to the various qualifications; support the development of routes to progress from qualification to qualification; and maximise the opportunities to transfer credit points between qualifications. It will do this by making the overall system, of qualifications and relevant programmes of learning, easier to understand and providing a national vocabulary for describing learning opportunities.

The SCQF will also assist in making clear the relationships between Scottish qualifications and those in the rest of the UK, Europe and beyond, thereby clarifying opportunities for international progression routes and credit transfer. Lantra are currently working with the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) to credit and level a number of Scottish vocational qualifications (SVQ) and the plan of work is detailed below.

Plans for Development for 2009

Useful links

For further information on the SCQF, please use links below:

www.scqf.org.uk/

www.scqfcolleges.org.uk/

www.sqa.org.uk/sqa/4595.html