HN Review - Unit Writing/Vetting Opportunities

As you are aware, we are currently consulting on the five group awards which are part of the HN Review (HNC Computing, HND Computing, HND Computing: Software Development, HND Computing: Technical Support and HND Computing: Networking).  If you have not yet had a chance to complete the online consultation survey, it can be accessed here.

Once all frameworks have been finalised we will be in a position to identify new units to be developed and also those requiring revision.

Given the high number of core and extended core QDT members, they will be involved heavily in the development work.  However, if you would like to be considered for unit writing and/or vetting then please contact me direct stating your area of expertise.  Should we require additional writers/vetters in addition to QDT members I shall be in touch with you direct.

Consultation questionnaire

We're now at the stage where we have draft frameworks for all five awards, and we would like feedback on our proposals. To that end, we have created a questionnaire to get your opinions about our plans. The online survey is available at the following URL:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/hnreview

The actual frameworks can be downloaded from this link [ZIP]:

http://www.box.net/shared/ifp5hik40a

We're hoping that as many people as possible complete the survey. So, please encourage your colleagues to complete it, and share the link with your internal and external networks. The survey ends on Friday, 6 May.

This consultation exercise is part of a wider collaboration process, which has included discussion at Sector Panel, a public event, a debate at the Heads of Computing event, and numerous QDT meetings. Extensive consulation does slow down the development process but ensures that everyone has an input and, hopefully, ensures that the new awards are as good as they can be.

Contact Caroline if you need any assistance with the survey.

Ready for consultation

Caroline and me met with the lead developer for this project (Gerry Mackie) this afternoon to tidy the draft frameworks and work on the consultation survey before opening them to the public on Monday of next week.

We tidied the frameworks for all five awards and completed the survey, so we are good to go once the QDT has a first look at the questionnaire.

The survey (with links to the draft frameworks) will be made available for public consultation from Monday of next week.

Finalising things for consultation

I will meet with Gerry next week to finalise the draft frameworks and sign-off the consultation survey. We tried hard to get these tasks done before the end of March, knowing that April is a bit of a dead month in schools and colleges, but we didn't make it.

We have to give colleges time to consider the proposals, and many are on holiday right now or about to go on holiday, so I decided to slow down, take our time, and ensure colleges have time to discuss and feedback on our proposals.

I am meeting with Gerry on the 14th, when we will finalise a few things, so I plan to commence the public consultation about the proposals on Monday, 18 April, for four weeks, ending Friday 13 May. This will be done via an online survey, through which we hope to get FE, HE, employer and special-interest feedback. Although this is later than I planned, it should not have an impact on the project end-date since the Summer was always going to be the prime time for writing units. All five awards will be validated in early 2012 and available to centres from August 2012.

The full QDT consists of over 30 people, representing over 20 colleges, so I hope that the consultation will be positive since such a large proportion of stakeholders is already represented in the Development Team.

Contact Gerry for more information about the new awards. Contact Caroline if you want to get involved in the development.