Learn how to get the best from the QCF

We develop learning resources from practice. Our resources fill gaps or make concepts and ways of working more widely accessible to practitioners in vocational education.   

We also develop resources that are published through other agencies. You can find reviews of these resources and access them here.

Of course there are now lots of other resources available to help practitioners understand the QCF and how it works. These resources and our tips on how to use them can be accessed here too.

Providers - are you ready for the QCF?

The QCF is having a big impact on how providers plan learning programmes. More flexibility and more choice for learners and employers means more challenges for providers in planning provision.  What does the QCF  mean  for leadership and management? For learner guidance and support?  Quality Improvement? Teaching and Learning? Learner registration? Funding? 

How to make the QCF work for you - access to interactive learning resources

We have developed  learning content for interactive tools for people using the QCF and for people designing Foundation Learning  programmes.   We designed these tools to work alongside the Action Planners.

The Process Map - designing in flexibility and choice to qualifications 

The QCF does not guarantee that new vocational qualifications will be any more useful than the old ones.  Although it is much easier to desgin the qualifications that employers want using the QCF,  you need to know how to get the best from QCF to design qualifications to meet employer requirements.

The Process Map can be used to design QCF units and qualifications in a systematic, efficient and cost effective way. We developed the Process Map through our work with all Sector and the major Awarding organisations.

Assigning Credit to QCF units and qualifications

There is much guidance available on designing and using QCF qualifications. You can access these resources here.  

However, guidance on how to assign credit to QCF units is not available - as the current guidance says,  

'The processes of determining level and credit value ... cannot be prescribed as they are a part of the holistic process of unit development.'

though the guidance does say who should be involved and what you must decide.

Our suggested process for assigning (determining) credit values was requested from Sector and Awarding organisation clients. It is cross- referenced to the requirements set out in the QCF regulations and sets out suggested steps for decision making and record keeping.

You could use our suggested process as a checklist or adapt it to suit your needs.