The UK Qualifications and Credit Framework: a critique

a paper by Stan Lester (Stan Lester Developments, Taunton)
Final version published in Journal of Vocational Education and Training Volume 63 Number 2 (June 2011)

Abstract

National and transnational qualifications frameworks are an increasingly present feature of the education and training landscape. The United Kingdom can be regarded as one of the pioneers of qualifications frameworks, with partial frameworks appearing from the mid-1980s onwards.

However, approaches in England if not in the whole of the UK have remained fragmented compared with the best examples from other countries. The recently-introduced Qualifications and Credit Framework (QCF) introduces partial innovations particularly in enabling credit for smaller achievements and allowing employers and practitioner communities to contribute content into the framework.

However, the framework is largely limited to vocational qualifications outside of universities; it is not particularly well integrated with the higher education, professional, and at present school sectors; and it lacks responsiveness to innovations in qualification design.

The QCF has been described as a ‘strong’ or regulated framework, although a more apposite term might be ‘brittle’.

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