Managing Maintenance: roles and responsibilities
Maintenance of nationally devised Group Awards is managed by SQA. Locally devised Group Awards are maintained by the Course Team.
The validation period for a Group Award is no longer limited. This anticipates that all Group Awards will be reviewed regularly by the Qualification Design Team (which will re-form to become a Qualification Support Team (QST).
The QST should meet on a regular basis to analyse feedback and performance indicators relevant to the Group Award.
Types of changes to an existing qualification structure
After validation and approval, the QST, Course Team or a delivering centre may wish to amend the structure of an existing Group Award. Amendments could include:
Alternative Units added to an existing structure - groups of Units which are similar and any one or more can contribute towards the qualification. For example Units with the same title but a different level or Units which demonstrate an overall knowledge/skill but in a different specialism ie Computing: Database, Excel, Word, Powerpoint.
Additions - more optional Units added to provide greater choice.
Revisions - where a Unit has been revised by another Unit.
Where a request to change the mandatory section is received, the relevant Qualification Manager will refer to the Group Award specification for the qualification and consider whether the requested change is appropriate to the rationale and aims of the qualification. The Qualification Manager may seek specialist advice for example, from the QST, the originating centre or group of centres, External Verifiers.
Requesting changes to an existing Unit/Group Award
Change requests to existing Units/Group Awards should be communicated to SQA through a DAVAL2 Form (148 KB)
Centre notification of changes
When changes are made to live Unit specifications and/or Group Award structures, in addition to the Qualification Manager's notification of changes, QPM will maintain a spreadsheet of relevant changes. The spreadsheet will be uploaded onto the NQ and HN home page on the SQA website under "Related Information" to provide a point of reference easily accessible by centres.