Recognition of awarding organisations

15.The 2009 Act will require us to recognise organisations to award specific qualifications or descriptions of qualifications.1 We propose that recognition of awarding organisations should continue without any interruption. The proposed arrangements would allow awarding organisations to be recognised to continue to award as regulated qualifications those specific qualifications that are accredited and for organisations to seek recognition to award specific regulated qualifications for which they are not currently recognised. An awarding organisation wishing to award new specific qualifications will need to seek recognition to award those qualifications against the relevant recognition criteria set out below. We think that this is in the best interests of learners. 16.To allow for this continuity it is proposed that the following arrangements would apply:
  • An awarding organisation will be recognised to award those qualifications from 1 April 2010, forms2 of which are accredited immediately prior to 1 April 2010.
  • An awarding organisation that has already been recognised under the 1997 Act but that has not had a particular form of qualification accredited (either because an accreditation application has yet to be received or because a decision on an application is pending) will also be recognised from 1 April 2010. Such recognition will be in respect of that form of qualification it has notified us that it intends to submit, or has submitted, for accreditation (as approved by us and included in its plan of provision) previously. We will need to advise the Secretary of State by the end of February of any organisations in this position. We will therefore review over the next few weeks whether there are likely to be any organisations in this position.
  • An organisation that has applied for but not been granted recognition under the 1997 Act (in respect of awarding qualifications and/or credits in respect of different components of qualifications) immediately prior to 1 April 2010 will have its application considered against the recognition criteria set out below for recognition under the 2009 Act, without the need to make a new application.
  • An organisation seeking recognition to award specific qualifications or credits in respect of different components of qualifications after 1 April 2010 will need to meet the relevant recognition criteria set out below.
  • A QCF awarding organisation will be recognised to award those credits in respect of different components of qualifications from 1 April 2010 in respect of which it is recognised immediately prior to 1 April 2010.
17.In addition, as explained below in paragraph 31, all forms of qualifications that have been accredited under the 1997 Act would be treated from 1 April 2010 as if accredited under the 2009 Act. Initially, all qualifications will continue to be subject to the accreditation requirement. Thus, until Ofqual decides otherwise, as well as seeking recognition against the relevant recognition criteria for any new qualifications it wished to award, an awarding organisation would also be required to submit forms of those qualifications for accreditation against the relevant accreditation criteria specified in this document. 18.The default position set out in the 2009 Act is that accreditation will not be required for every qualification. We expect to move to a position where for many specified qualifications or descriptions of qualifications the recognition criteria, conditions and monitoring arrangements will allow us to be confident that a recognised awarding organisation will be able to develop, deliver and award high-quality regulated qualifications and to maintain standards without being subject to the accreditation requirement. We would hope to be able to move to this position by September 2010, subject to the responses to our consultation.
  1. A description of a qualification could be a type of qualification, for example GCSE or GCE. [↩]
  2. In the 2009 Act a form of a qualification is a specific qualification awarded by a particular recognised awarding organisation, for example XYZ Awarding Organisation’s GCSE mathematics specification A or specification B. [↩]

Comments are closed.