HND ACCOUNTING
2010 Framework – Year 2 Delivery
The story so far
About me
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Curriculum leader in Accounting
Responsible for management of the new course
Member of QST for last 4-5 years
Involved in writing and vetting exemplars for
both this structure and the previous structure
 Have delivered all core HNC units (except
MAUIT) plus Payroll
 Currently delivering FRA, Business Taxation,
Income Tax and GU3 – have delivered old AST
Review of HNC – general points
 Delivering for second time
 Some but not a lot of adjustment of teaching
materials required
 Found marking more difficult than before
 Still struggling with defining errors of principle
and errors of arithmetic
 Think there are inconsistencies in error
tolerances - between Units and between
Outcomes within a Unit
Review of HNC – general points
 Used more remediation than I like to do
 Needed to discuss marking with other deliverers
more to make consistent decisions
 This is difficult when you are a sole deliverer
which is more likely in the HND
 Some assessment exemplars required
corrections – amended through IV process and
Feedback Forms completed or SQA amended
eg Cost Accounting
Review of HNC – Unit by Unit
 RFI
– Overall I think more achievable
– Inconsistent error tolerance between
Outcomes, eg same error tolerance for
Outcomes 1 and 3, Outcome 3 open book,
Outcome 1 closed and 3 is easier than 1
– Outcome 4 open book with no control
accounts
Review of HNC - Unit by Unit
 PFA
– More difficult than previously
– Content of Outcome 1 takes half the Unit time
– Teaching of control accounts required in this
Unit rather than using knowledge from RFI as
we did previously
 UFAS
– comparable to 2004 Unit
Review of HNC – Unit by Unit
 Cost Accounting
– Overall more achievable but again some
inconsistencies in error tolerances
– More errors allowed for job costing than
service costing
 MAUIT – not sure?
 GU1 – comparable – overall gave better spread
of marks. Students can still pass without
attempting theory – albeit they cannot gain A
grade.
Review of HNC – Unit by Unit
 Payroll
– More straight forward
– Concerns about manual payroll for the future
– Perhaps specification needs to be revisited
Review of HNC – options chosen
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Payroll
Maths for Business
Statistics for Business
Economic Issues: An Introduction
Business Law: An Introduction
IT in Business: Spreadsheets
Introducing the HND
 We launched the 2010 HNC framework in
August 2010
 Old Units were only delivered to 2nd year
evening class students in session 2010/2011
 Anyone else attached to the old group award did
the new Units and were credit transferred
backwards.
 Wouldn’t recommend students being taught
together and doing different assessments under
different conditions
Introducing the HND
 This year the new HND Units have been
launched and we have stopped delivering old
Units to anyone
 If need be credit transfers will be done
 All core Units are forward and backward
transferrable
 Options chosen for part time students are only
those which have been mapped as completely
transferrable in the arrangements documents
Introducing the HND
 Examples of fully transferrable options
– Managing People and Organisations
– Marketing: An Introduction
– Economics – all three Units in structure
– Business Law: An Introduction
– Business Contractual Relationships
– Human Resource Management
– Developing an Individual in a Team
Route 2
 Used for all part time students with complete
HNCs in the old group award (2004 framework)
 Remember only 12 credits are allowed using this
route. If they have any more then CT from old to
new will be required
 Need to be organised
 Choose options carefully
HND – Unit by Unit
 FRA
– Outcome 1 was a better assessment
– Outcome 1 now open book and assessed
separately from Outcome 2
– Outcome 2 is about to be assessed. Looks
like it will be easier to mark than the previous
one
– Initial impression is that error tolerance is high
but might be needed
– Outcomes 3 and 4 still to deliver
HND – Unit by Unit
 AST
– No exemplar published yet and we have
finished delivering
– We updated previous assessment to meet
criteria of new specification
– Specification still recommends formulae be
given for contract accounting when this
method is not now used in practice or in
professional exams
HND – Unit by Unit
 MAPC
– Outcome 1 – think one error of principle not
enough, would like it increased to 2
– Outcome 3 – additional variances have been
added to list but formula sheet now given.
Calculations are required for 2 machines
instead of one. Only a handful of students
could do it in the suggested time.
– Otherwise comparable with 2004 Unit
HND – Unit by Unit
 MADM
– Outcome 1 similar to previous Unit, Outcome
2 about to be delivered, Outcomes 3-5 still to
do.
– Think error tolerance is too tight throughout.
Would suggest that all Outcomes should have
2 errors of principle allowed to pass
HND – Unit by Unit
 Business Taxation
– Similar content to previous Unit
– Previously we assessed Income Tax and
Corporation Tax in one assessment, as it was
very doable with 70% marking scheme, this
time we split it
– Think error tolerance is too low for Outcome 1
– Far too many resits necessary
HND – Unit by Unit
 Income Tax
– Just starting to deliver this one
– Seems to be a lot of arithmetic errors allowed
HND – Unit by Unit
 Graded Unit 2
– Trying a new approach where we are
integrating the project with two other Units
(Research Skills and Using Software
Applications Packages)
– Timetabled one hour for each per week for
the whole year
HND – Unit by Unit
 Graded Unit 3
– Three required units
– Business Taxation and AST complete
– FRA Outcomes 1 and 2 complete
– Assessment exemplar made available 6
February
– Using same practice material as previously
HND – General points
 Basic content for teaching is very similar so no
major changes to teaching materials required
 Very few exemplars were available when we
started
 Same problems with dealing with errors as
highlighted in review of HNC
 Finding more remediation/resits necessary
compared with last year – is it the change in
Units or different students?
Last slide . . .
 Thank you
 Any questions?