Available qualifications

Wednesday, 04 May 2011 10:58

All regulated qualifications are listed on the Register of Regulated Qualifications. These tables provide a summary of 1) the number of regulated qualifications that were available to learners, and 2) the number of those qualifications that recorded achievements during each academic year. The number of qualifications available over the year is higher than the number available at any one point of time during the year because there will be other qualifications that become available later in the year or pass their end date earlier in the year.

All regulated qualifications are included, regardless of intended age of learner and funding status of the qualification.

Table 1: Available qualifications by qualification type, 2000/01 to 2009/10

Table 2: Awarded qualifications by qualification type, 2000/01 to 2009/10

* Key skills achievements data was not collected by Ofqual prior to 2010

Figures in the table have been rounded to the nearest 50; `-` indicates a value less than 25. Figures have been rounded independently so may not sum to the total. A grey box indicates the qualification type was not available during that year.

Notes about the data

Available qualifications:

These are qualifications that are available to be awarded at any point during the relevant academic year. This includes all qualifications that had passed their effective (start) date before the end of the year, but had not exceeded the final certification date, which is the last date when a regulated qualification may issue a certificate, at the start of the year.

Awarded qualifications:

This refers to the subset of Available qualifications that recorded at least one achievement in England, Wales or Northern Ireland during the relevant time period.

Time periods:

These tables show the number of qualifications that were available or awarded at any time during the relevant academic year (1 October to 30 September).

Data source:

Since October 2010 the source for regulated qualifications is the Register of Regulated Qualifications. Prior to this, the list of qualifications was held in QCDA’s National Database of Accredited Qualifications (NDAQ). Data on achievements is submitted by awarding organisations each quarter and is available in the Regulated Qualifications Activity Dataset.

Geographical coverage:

These figures cover the regulated qualifications of all recognised awarding organisations included in Ofqual’s Register. The figures for awarded qualifications only refer to qualifications which recorded at least one award in England, Wales or Northern Ireland during the relevant time period.

Qualification type:

At the point of accreditation, regulated qualifications are allocated to a qualification type; please see the glossary for further details. It is recognised that this is not currently an ideal classification system, as very similar qualifications may appear under different types. Qualifications may be reclassified to a different type by the awarding organisation during the year; this table presents figures for the number of qualifications of each type, according to the classification of the qualification at the end of the relevant reported year.

Revisions:

Once published, figures for the number of qualifications available during a year are not usually subject to revision. However it is possible for awarding organisations to change a qualification’s start/effective and end dates which can alter the number of qualifications that meet the definition for being available during any given time period. In this case, figures in these tables will be amended. Some figures in these tables do not agree with figures published in previous Annual Qualifications Market Reports due to a change in definitions and inclusion criteria.

Completeness of the data:

Ofqual has been maintaining this information since 2009. Previous data is available for many qualification types from legacy systems, but becomes less accurate or verifiable further back in time.

Quarterly qualification counts:

Ofqual’s regular quarterly bulletins on vocational qualifications provide figures for the number of qualifications available and awarded during each quarter. These figures are necessarily lower than figures for a full year because there will be other qualifications that become available during later quarters in the year or pass their certification end date during earlier quarters in the year.

Last Updated on Wednesday, 08 June 2011 17:11 Tags: Ofqual, education, examination regulation, qualifications, assessments