Awarding Body Self-Assessment

Your annual self-assessment provides us with a system to facilitate continual improvement and ongoing review of the Awarding Body.

The self-assessment provides us with an understanding of your current and future objectives. This allows us to identify how you are developing, designing, and delivering qualifications that contribute to the Scottish economy.

Information from your self-assessment may help with audit activities whilst ensuring compliance with the Regulatory Principle 6 which states that: ‘The awarding body must continually review the effectiveness of its services, systems, policies and processes’.

Your self-assessment report should be evidence-based, not compliance-based, and can be submitted in your preferred format.

We have produced examples, along with a template document which you can use. You can find these on our website.

If you have any questions or require additional information, contact your Regulation Manager.

Keep in Touch Meetings

We would like to remind awarding bodies that we offer Keep in Touch meetings. The meetings are designed to strengthen relationships, exchange valuable insights, and discuss regulatory activity.

We hold meetings on an ongoing basis, at a time convenient to the awarding body and Regulation Manager. The meetings are conducted online and allow for free-flowing discussions.

Some of our most recent meetings have included:

• Introducing new Awarding Body staff into the role of SQA Accreditation
• Self-assessment guidance and support
• Reminders regarding Regulatory Principles
• Guidance on the use of SharePoint

If you would like to schedule a Keep in Touch Meeting, please contact [email protected] and your dedicated Regulation Manager will be happy to assist you.

Have your say on the SQA Accreditation newsletter

Today we’re launching an online survey to gather feedback from you about the SQA Accreditation newsletter. 

We’re conducting this research to ensure, as much as possible, that our newsletter is timely, convenient, effective, and relevant for our audience.   

We want to hear from you. What do you think of the newsletter? Do you receive all the information you need? Is there anything you’d like us to do differently in future?

Our survey is open until Wednesday 8 May 2024. It takes around 5 minutes to complete and all responses will remain anonymous.

We’ll review and consider all the feedback we receive and use this to identify any improvements we can make to our newsletter now and in the future. We’ll share our findings with you in a later edition of the SQA Accreditation newsletter after the survey closes.

Please feel free to share this with anyone it may be of interest to.

Public Reporting

Since our last newsletter we have published an Audit Report and Action Plan for:

• Highfield Qualifications
• GQA Qualifications
• The Prince’s Trust

These can be found in the Public Reporting section of our website along with the most recent audit and Provider Monitoring Reports for all approved awarding bodies.

ACG Decision Lists

Information on new developments, such as the approval of a new awarding body or a new qualification, can be found on the regularly updated Accreditation Co-ordination Group (ACG) decision list.

Listing and Lapsing Reports

For the latest information about live qualifications, please check out the Listing Report. For information about qualifications which are lapsing and finishing in the next four months, please have a look at the Lapsing Report. You can find both on our website.

Apprenticeship Approvals Group 

Information relating to the Apprenticeship Approvals Group (AAG), including the minutes for its meetings, can be found on the Skills Development Scotland website.