Understanding Standards
Event, May 2015
Level 1 & 2 Qualifications Update
Sandy Riddell
(Qualifications Manager, SQA)
Level 1 & 2 Qualifications
National 2 Courses
 The new National 2 Courses have been available since August
2013
 There were 15 Courses (including the 4 languages: German;
Spanish; Italian; and French)
 We’ve added 3 more Courses for: Gaelic Learners; Gaelic
Speakers; and Maths for Gaelic Speakers.
 We have also amended the UASPs for two of the English and
Communication Units (see Sept Update for details http://www.sqa.org.uk/sqa/files_ccc/SubjectUpdateNational1and
2Sep2014.pdf)
Level 1 & 2 Qualifications
National 1 Units
 The new National 1 Units were developed and
released to centres in 3 phases during 2013/14
 The last phase of new Units were made available for
centres in May 2014
 There are now 76 National 1 Units available
Level 1 & 2 Qualifications
Freestanding Units at National 2 level
 There were a number of Units that were not part
of Courses within the Access 2 suite
 Units now reviewed, revised and/or replace
 The new range of Freestanding Units will be
available from August 2015:
– 16 Units covering various topics (Comm’s,
Media Studies, Ind’ Living, etc)
– 13 Units covering employment skills
Awards at Level 1 and 2
 ‘Awards’ are not part of the National 1 and 2 suite:
 There are several Awards available at SCQF level 1
and 2:
Personal Development (level 2);
Personal Achievement (level 1&2);
Cycling (level 1&2);
Steps to Work (level 2)
Scottish Studies (level 2)
Lapsing dates for Access 1 and 2
 Most of the old Access 1 Units and Access 2 Units &
Courses will still be available up until July 2016
 We would encourage centres to move over to the
new Courses and Units by session 2015/16
 Candidate’s cannot be resulted for the old (Access)
Units after 1st August 2016
Level 1 and 2 Qualification Codes
 All SQA qualifications have a six digit code, e.g.
– Science: Practical Experiments (H8M6 72)
 New Units codes start with ‘H’, Course codes
start with ‘C’ and Award codes start with ‘G’
 The last two digits indicate the level:
Product type and level
National 1 Units
National 2 Units
Units from Level 1 Awards
Units from Level 2 Awards
Level code
71
72
41
42
Level 1 & 2 Qualifications
 Update to the Level 1 Personal Achievement
Award:
Outcome 3 had included:
3.1 Communicate one thing about the activity which
was liked/disliked
3.2 Communicate the reason for this view
Outcome 3 will change to:
3.1 Communicate whether you liked or disliked the
activity
Level 1 & 2 Qualifications
Navigating the SQA website
 Information about level 1 and 2 qualifications is now
held in various sections of the SQA website
 Documents relating to National 1 and 2 qualifications
are held in a different section from level 1 and 2
Awards
 The sheet enclosed in your packs lists a few URLs
that may help you find the information you need.
Any Questions ??
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