It is in everybody’s interest to establish an infrastructure that can produce high-quality technical qualifications that reflect standards set by employers. We also welcome the Government’s commitment to long-term planning and stability as the best way of securing the development and delivery of trusted qualifications that are widely understood. And we are committed to working with the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education in its new extended role.
We agree with Lord Sainsbury’s independent panel that the proliferation of vocational qualifications can be confusing to employers and learners. Given these concerns, we will as a first step shortly remove around 2,000 qualifications from our register that have not been awarded for at least two years. We will write to awarding organisations to explain how we intend to achieve this significant reduction.
Sally Collier, Chief Regulator, said:
The effective regulation of the vocational qualifications market in England is one of Ofqual’s priorities. I welcome the long-term vision for technical qualifications set out by the government in the Skills Plan. We will use our assessment expertise, understanding of the qualifications market and authority as the independent qualifications regulator to help deliver these goals.
Awarding organisations affected by our changes will hear from us by the end of July.