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FAQ

Last updated on: 12/03/2008

Answers to some of the most common questions about the accreditation process.

Who are the regulators? 

Ofqual, DCELLS and CCEA are the regulators of external qualifications in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. They regulate by:

  • developing and publishing criteria for the accreditation of qualifications
  • accrediting qualifications against those criteria
  • keeping qualifications under review
  • publishing and sharing information relating to accredited qualifications.

Before an organisation can submit a qualification for accreditation, it must first either become a recognised awarding body or enter into a partnership with an existing awarding body.

What is an awarding body?

An awarding body is an organisation that awards qualifications to learners and is responsible for the following key functions:

  • developing qualifications
  • assessing and quality assuring qualifications
  • awarding qualifications
  • providing customer service to centres and candidates.

One function of the regulators is to recognise awarding bodies as capable of operating within the National Qualifications Framework (NQF). This involves considering awarding bodies’ systems, procedures and resources in relation to the qualifications they intend to offer. Awarding bodies must also demonstrate that they have robust and appropriate management arrangements, and policies and procedures that will support and protect learners who take their qualifications. Although every awarding body recognised by Ofqual, DCELLS and CCEA varies in size and structure, learners and centres can be confident that each has met the regulatory criteria on all of the above areas.

What are the first steps to becoming a recognised awarding body?

Read the awarding body recognition application form and The statutory regulation of external qualifications in England, Wales and Northern Ireland (2004), which are available to download from this page. Consider the structure, policies and procedures that recognised awarding bodies are required to have and decide on the implications for your organisation to work in this way. This should provide you with a strong indication of the feasibility of awarding body recognition.

If, having looked at the form, you are still interested in the awarding body route, the next step is to organise an early dialogue meeting with the regulator. This would involve a member of the Recognition and Approvals team and a sector or curriculum officer who specialises in your area of qualifications. This meeting will be used to assess the available options and the appropriate follow-up. An early dialogue meeting can be arranged through the Recognition and Approvals team by emailing partateam@ofqual.gov.uk.

How do I submit an application to become a recognised awarding body?

Once the early dialogue meeting and follow-up has taken place and you wish to aim for recognition, you need to complete and submit the awarding body recognition application form. Your organisation will need to provide evidence of all the necessay policies and procedures to the regulators for review. You will be asked to produce the following 11 documents to demonstrate your ability to meet the key awarding body functions:

  • list of partnership/franchising/licensing agreements
  • organisation chart details of committee structures
  • person specifications / job roles for key members of staff
  • equal opportunities policy
  • reasonable adjustments and special considerations policy and procedures
  • published customer service statement
  • sample certificate designs
  • malpractice procedures
  • appeals policy
  • position statement on the use of Welsh and Irish.

When making an application each awarding body is required to declare its ‘plan of provision’, which is a list of the qualifications it intends to place on the NQF. This will determine which criteria your application needs to be reviewed against and, on recognition, control the areas within which your awarding body can submit qualification proposals. Once recognised, awarding bodies are at liberty to extend their plan of provision in line with their own qualification development by demonstrating the relevant resources to the regulators.

Finally, each submission needs to have a letter of support for your proposed qualifications from the relevant sector skills council or other industry body. This will be discussed at the early dialogue meeting.

It will benefit your application if you contact the regulators about two weeks before you are ready to submit it. This will allow us to confirm that you have the correct documentation and that a reviewer is in place to look at your form. Please contact the Recognition and Approvals team by emailing partateam@ofqual.gov.uk.

How long does the application process take? 

Once the regulators have received your application we will review and return it within 35 working days along with a recommendation of whether or not to continue with the application. If this recommendation is negative, the regulators will work with your organisation towards other acceptable possibilities. If the recommendation is positive, the application will continue until the regulators are satisfied that all the requirements are in place. In both instances detailed feedback will be provided in the checklist at the back of the form, stating whether the relevant criteria have been met and with a clear explanation of the review’s findings.

The time taken to complete a successful application will depend almost entirely on the ability of your organisation to change and meet the necessary requirements, which itself will be dependent on the similarity of your current operations to that of an awarding body. While all applications vary, most organisations take a minimum of six months to complete the process and it can take up to three years. All organisations interested in submitting an application should consider carefully how committed they are to making the changes required when their first application is returned to them.

It is also important to realise that organisations are required to have all the policies and procedures in place before they can be recognised as awarding bodies.

Is there a minimum size of awarding body? 

 Each awarding body varies in size, scope and mode of operation. The statutory regulations state that there is no minimum size of awarding body so long as they are able to meet their commitments to their learners and fulfil the roles of an awarding body. Within this they must be able to cope with an increase and decrease in the number of learners and have contingency plans to cover staff illness or indisposition. In nearly every situation awarding bodies need at least two full-time members of staff of whom one takes responsibility as the single point of accountability.

How much does awarding body recognition cost? 

There are no financial charges at any stage of the process. Any costs to an awarding body are those involved in having the resources in place to meet its criteria requirements to learners.

How can I work in partnership with an existing recognised awarding body?

There can be significant advantages to working in partnership with an existing recognised awarding body, rather than seeking independent recognition. The regulators recommend that all organisations consider this.

Your organisation is free to approach any recognised awarding body to work in partnership with them to place your qualification into the NQF. If such an agreement can be made, it provides a quicker route to qualification accreditation than awarding body recognition. By offering your qualifications through a partner awarding body the regulators need no guarantees from your organisation of the policies and procedures in place. These assurances will instead be sought from the partner awarding body.

Qualifications accredited through a partnership arrangement will appear on the various registration databases under the name of the recognised awarding body. The marketing of the partner organisation is often done by the appearance of the logos of both organisations on candidates’ certificates.

As awarding bodies vary in size, method of assessment and almost every other area of operation, we recommend that you approach several for negotiation. There is no requirement for organisations to work with awarding bodies in their own sector as the structures, policies and procedures of awarding bodies are generic throughout sector areas. However, an awarding body may need to extend its plan of provision before it can submit qualifications for accreditation.

How are the regulators involved in these partnerships? 

The regulators are not involved in the negotiation between a partner organisation and a recognised awarding body. The nature of such agreements may vary. The regulators cannot recommend one awarding body over another. Should any organisation be interested in partnership, they need to explore which recognised awarding bodies work in the particular sector they want to operate within. This can be done either by contacting the relevant sector skills council (SSC) for information or consulting the National Database of Accredited Qualifications (NDAQ) using the 'Sector subject area' search facility. 

The negotiation of the partnership is:

  • private between the two organisations involved
  • subject to different circumstances
  • outside the remit of the regulators.

Ofqual, DCELLS and CCEA do, however, need to know that learners taking the qualification will still receive the safeguards they would expect from any other accredited qualification. To this end the awarding body in the partnership needs to provide the regulators with a copy of the partnership agreement that clearly states where the division of responsibility for the qualification lies. This is usually a summary of the remit between the two organisations and will guarantee the quality assurance of the qualification and the protection and safeguard of learners should one organisation remove itself, either voluntarily or otherwise, from the partnership. Where the recognised awarding body does not quality assure the qualification itself but devolves this responsibility to the partner, it needs to conduct audits to ensure that proper quality assurance is taking place.

For more details or advice on entering into partnerships with an existing recognised awarding body please contact the Recognition and Approvals team by emailing partateam@ofqual.gov.uk.

What related areas are awarding bodies not involved in?

Awarding bodies do not provide the learning or training leading to their qualifications, in other words, they do not deliver the qualification straight to learners. Where the awarding body operates within a larger organisation it must be able to demonstrate a high level of autonomy and sufficient resources to fulfil its role. Essentially, it must have a separation from other functions that could provide a conflict of interest with its awarding body status. These include operating as a sector skills council, training or membership organisation or other particular function.

What are accredited qualifications?

Accredited qualifications are those that have been reviewed by the regulators against specific quality criteria to meet identified needs.

Qualifications have requirements that are set out in the document The statutory regulation of external qualifications in England, Wales and Northern Ireland (2004), which is available to download from this page. In addition, qualifications that are intended to meet specific sector needs are required to:

  • have support from the relevant sector skills council or similar organisation
  • conform to national occupational standards.

Once qualifications meet these criteria, they are placed on the NQF. All qualifications on the NQF are offered by recognised awarding bodies. A full list of accredited qualifications and the awarding bodies that offer them can be found on the NDAQ website.

How can I place my qualifications on the National Qualifications Framework? 

If your organisation has developed its own qualifications that you wish to submit to the regulators for accreditation, you need to either be an awarding body recognised by the regulators or be in a partnership with an existing awarding body. Both of these possibilities are explained on this page.

What are the advantages of accredited qualifications?

Accredited qualifications provide the learner and other stakeholders with certain guarantees about the qualification itself and the awarding body that offers it. The qualification will have met specific quality criteria that ensure it is fit for its purpose, includes relevant content and uses appropriate assessment methodology. Qualifications intended to meet specific sector needs will also have support from the relevant sector skills council or similar organisation and link to revelant national occupational standards.

All awarding bodies operating within the NQF are also required to meet standards relating to their governance, management and administration arrangements. These are outlined on this page under 'What is an awarding body?'.

Are there particular types of qualifications accredited by the regulators?

The regulators' remit includes the accreditation of the following types of qualifications:

  • adult literacy and numeracy
  • Advanced Extension Awards
  • English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL)
  • Entry level
  • GCSEs
  • GCEs
  • higher level (at level four or above)
  • Key Skills
  • National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs)
  • qualifications that fall under the common criteria, including vocationally related qualifications, occupational qualifications and other general qualifications.

The criteria for all these qualification types can be found in The statutory regulation of external qualifications in England, Wales and Northern Ireland (2004), a copy of which can be downloaded from this page.

How are the qualifications approved and funded? 

Once qualifications are accredited and admitted into the NQF, the regulators are required to provide advice to their respective education ministers about the qualifications. Through this process qualifications are approved for specific groups of learners in England and Wales under Sections 96 and 97 of the Learning and Skills Act 2000, and the Education (Northern Ireland) Order 1998.

For more information on qualification approval arrangements, see the Department for Children, Schools and Families' website for England, the Education and Skills section of the Welsh Assembly Government's website for Wales, and the Department for Employment and Learning website for Northern Ireland. These lists of approved qualifications are then shared with the respective funding agencies in each country (The Learning and Skills Council in England, Education & Learning Wales in Wales and the Department of Education and Department for Employment and Learning in Northern Ireland).

Qualification accreditation is neither a guarantee of approval nor of funding. Funding agencies do, where appropriate, fund non-NQF qualifications. For further details in England, please refer to the funding guidelines on the Learning and Skills Council's reading room website.

When visiting the different qualifications databases it is important to be aware that due to the nature of the accreditation and approval process there may be a time lag causing information discrepancies. For more information on this please visit the qualification approval process page.

How can I offer existing accredited qualifications? 

If you are a school, further education college, training centre or other kind of adult learning provider that is offering a course not currently leading to a certificated outcome, it may be possible for that course to lead to a nationally accredited qualification. If this is of interest please follow these steps:

Visit our NDAQ website and choose the qualification(s) that interest you. Use the advanced search facility to look by qualification title, sector subject area, qualification type and level. Please be aware that awarding bodies may offer the same qualification by title but with varying contents.

Having identified which qualifications you would like to offer, use the awarding body link on NDAQ to access the contact details for the awarding body or bodies, and express to them your interest in offering the qualification. Where applicable, awarding bodies will provide advice on their centre approval process and any fees that apply. It may be worth contacting more than one awarding body to compare different approval processes and identify which is most appropriate for you as a centre.