1.20The legislation marks a shift in the focus of regulation from individual qualifications to the organisations that award or authenticate them. We will recognise awarding organisations to develop and offer regulated qualifications. An awarding organisation will be responsible for the quality and standard of its qualifications.
1.21We must make sure the organisations we recognise perform consistently in a way that protects standards and learners, secures public confidence and delivers a high quality of service. An organisation that performs in this way will be subject to a lower level of regulatory intervention than an organisation in which we have less confidence.
1.22We need to design and apply recognition criteria. We will use these criteria when we judge whether an organisation is fit to offer regulated qualifications. We propose that all organisations seeking recognition should be judged against the same generic recognition criteria, regardless of the types of qualifications they wish to offer and the sort of organisation they are. We believe this will promote public understanding of the role and responsibilities of awarding organisations, avoid unnecessary complexities and promote fairness within the qualifications market.
1.23We are consulting on proposed recognition criteria which would enable us to consider, among other things, an awarding organisation’s governance, financial viability, quality assurance arrangements, expertise and resources. We are seeking views on the draft criteria and on any other measures we should use to judge whether an organisation is fit to be recognised as an awarding organisation.
1.24Once an organisation is recognised it will be subject to on-going conditions of recognition. An awarding organisation will be required to comply with these conditions. Some of the conditions will be general and will apply to all awarding organisations, or to all organisations offering a particular qualification or description of qualifications. Other conditions may be applied to a particular awarding organisation.
1.25We are seeking views on the conditions that we should set. We propose a set of general conditions that would apply to all awarding organisations. We have indicated when additional conditions might be appropriate. The draft conditions cover areas such as governance, resources and expertise, qualification development and design, assessment, awarding and grading, the provision of information and quality assurance. Awarding organisations would also need to comply with general conditions that apply to the qualifications they offer.
1.26Some qualifications, or qualifications offered by a particular awarding organisation, will be subject to an accreditation requirement before they may be made available to learners. This means we will check them to decide whether they are fit for purpose and meet the appropriate criteria. We propose a number of circumstances in which it might be appropriate to check qualifications before they are made available, namely:
- when we recognise an organisation that has no track record of awarding regulated qualifications
- when an awarding organisation is recognised to offer a new type of qualification which would require new ways of working, or approaches to qualification design or assessment
- when a new type of qualification is introduced that will be taken by large numbers of learners
- when there are concerns about qualifications offered by a particular awarding organisation
1.27From time to time other circumstances may arise when an accreditation requirement will be appropriate.
1.28This approach would ensure that we target most attention to organisations and to qualifications that present a higher risk to learners and to standards. It will allow us to decide, if appropriate, to make some qualifications for young people (for example, GCSEs, A levels and Diplomas) subject to the accreditation requirement, at least in the initial period after Ofqual starts operating. However, where we decide to impose the accreditation requirement, we shall need to consult as necessary and be able to justify that requirement against our criteria.
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