Qualifications Update:
N3 and N4 Business
N5 Business Management
Alistair Wylie
Qualifications Manager
National Qualifications
Humanities, Arts & Business
Developing qualifications - drivers
• Progression
• More open and flexible requirements
• Assessment which supports learning
• Refreshed and relevant contexts for learning
• Personalisation and Choice
• Robust and credible
Key points
• Skills-based Units provide flexibility and choice
• Provides opportunities to apply skills, knowledge and
understanding to real business situations
• Builds knowledge and understanding progressively up the
levels
• Some new topics such as Social Enterprise
• Combines the best aspects of current Intermediate and
Standard Grade Courses
• Added Value is assessed at N4 by an assignment and at
N5 by a question paper and an assignment
Unit Structure
National 3
Business
National 4
Business
Business in Action
Business in Action
Influences on Business Influences on Business
National 5
Business
Management
Understanding
Business
Management of
People and Finance
Management of
Marketing and
Operations
New Quality Assurance arrangements
•
Covers National 1 to National 5 from 2013/14
•
Promotes shared understanding of national standards
through a collaborative and partnership approach
•
New ‘Nominee’ role - provides a pool of nationally trained
experts
•
Intense verification in the first 3 years, thereafter an
approach based on information gathered
•
Verification in Nov/Dec, Feb and Apr/May - allows for early
identification of issues and support/guidance to be given
Assessment Support Schedule 2012/13
Oct 12
N3 to N5 Unit Assessment Support (Package 1)
Feb 13
N3 to N5 Unit Assessment Support (Package 2)
Feb 13
N5 Specimen Question Paper
Apr 13
N3 to N5 Unit Assessment Support (Package 3)
Apr 13
N5 Specimen Coursework
Apr 13
N4 Added Value Assessment Support
Business/Business Management
Unit Assessment
National 3 to National 5
Unit assessment
• Flexible and open Assessment Standards and Evidence
Requirements in Units
• Greater range of techniques and methodologies for assessment –
encouraged through Unit assessment support packages
• Assessments can be designed to provide evidence across more
than one outcome or Unit – combined assessments
• More opportunities to gather naturally occurring evidence –
assessment as part of learning and teaching
Unit Assessment Support
packages – purpose
Assessment support packages will be provided which you can
use to:
• Assess your candidates
• Adapt for your own assessment programmes
• Help you develop your own assessments
Unit Assessment Support
packages – key features
• Valid from August 2013
• Designed to encourage professional judgment
• Provide broad-based tasks – allow assessors to choose
appropriate context and forms of evidence
• Show range of approaches to generating assessment evidence
• Give information on the type of evidence which could be
gathered and how this is to be judged against Assessment
Standards
Assessment Package 1
Pack 1 – Unit by Unit approach
• Each Unit has a pack which covers every assessment
standard
• Each pack is ready to use and all meet minimum
competence
• Each pack shows only 1 way of assessing that
particular set of assessment standards
Business/Business Management
Added Value Assessments:
- National 5 Course Assessment
- National 4 Added Value Unit
Adding Value – National 4,
National 5
• Each Course at National 4 and National 5
includes assessment of Added Value
• For National 4, the added value is in an
Added Value Unit - not graded
• For National 5, the added value is in the
Course Assessment - graded A - D (as at
present)
National 5 – assignment
•
•
•
•
30 marks (question paper 70 marks)
Prepare a short business report
4 pages + appendix
Choose an organisation and an area of
focus
National 5 – assignment
EXAMPLES
• Marketing function – pricing strategies
• Finance – finance available for expansion
• HR – recruitment and selection policies
• Operations – production methods
National 4 Added Value Unit Business
• Choosing, with support, an aspect of a new
small business to consider
• Preparing a simple business proposal, based
on research findings
• Presenting the business proposal to others
using a suitable method