CENTRE BULLETIN

🚫 The Agored Cymru Entry Level Award in Welsh Language in Nurseries for Early Years Practitioners (C00/0701/3) will expire on the 31/8/2024

🚫 The Level 2 Health Informatics qualifications are being withdrawn as of 30/09/2024.

🚫 Agored Cymru Level 2 Award in Health Informatics (C00/0595/0)

🚫 Agored Cymru Level 2 Certificate in Health Informatics (C00/0595/1)

🚫 Agored Cymru Level 2 Extended Certificate in Health Informatics (C00/0603/1).

🚫 The Agored Cymru Level 3 Certificate in Mediation (C00/3991/1) will expire on 30/09/2024.

Introduction to Assessment

This is a two-and-a-half-hour interactive session designed as an introduction to the principles and practices of high-quality assessment. You are required to complete a short pre-course activity which will help you prepare for the session.
At the end of this session, attendees will:

☑️understand the basic principles of assessment;

☑️understand what assessment is, levels of assessment and the types of assessment methods; and

☑️ be equipped with the skills to assess Agored Cymru units and qualifications effectively.

Introduction to Internal Quality Assurance

This is a two-and-a-half-hour interactive session designed as an introduction to the principles and practices of internal quality assurance. You are required to complete a short pre-course activity which will help you prepare for the session.
At the end of this session, attendees will:

☑️ understand the basic principles of internal quality assurance;

☑️ understand the role of the internal quality assurer;

☑️ learn how to record outcomes of internal quality assurance; and

☑️ have the skills to  internally quality assure Agored Cymru units and qualifications effectively.

It is a mandatory requirement that an appropriate representative from a centre attends an Agored Cymru standardisation event at least every 2 years. 
 
Standardisation events are aimed at: 
•    Quality Managers 
•    Internal Quality Assurance (IQA) staff 
•    Staff with key responsibilities within centre quality assurance policy and practice. 
 
The events focus on the best practice of quality assurance processes and aim to promote consistency in the standards of assessment and quality assurance. 
 
Attendees must be actively involved in Internal Quality Assurance or have attended Agored Cymru’s ‘Introduction to Internal Quality Assurance’ training. They will also need to be able to share information and implement good practice within their own organisation. 

Further CASS surgeries will be added to the schedule for 2024-2025 so please review the Training and Events webpage for latest updates. 

Learning Core cross-centre moderation – award of credit

For each qualification you are intending to claim for in summer 2024 (e.g. PSE, WRE), you must have provided a sample for cross-centre moderation (or for an alternative EQA activity), so that we can make a decision regarding the award of credit.  

If a claim is submitted for a qualification that has not been sampled in the 2023-24 period, we cannot award credit until an EQA activity, such as cross-centre moderation, has been successfully completed.  

Please contact quality.assurance@agored.cymru if you would like to discuss anything further.

We are fully committed to the parity of treatment for learners taking Vocational and Technical Qualifications (VTQs), and wherever possible, Agored Cymru issues results in advance of General Qualifications (GQ) results so that the flexibilities, which are a valued aspect of VTQs, are not undermined. 

Please note that claims will not be approved until a successful EQA activity has taken place i.e. where credit has been approved by an external quality assurer following scrutiny of evidence.  

As previously communicated, we have now reinstated the outstanding Centre Action Plan (CAP) notification emails. You will see these arriving in your inboxes if there is no named person or action allocated to your CAP. An acknowledgement (adding named person and action) of the CAP must be made within 10 working days of receipt of an EQA report, so please note that the reminders begin to be sent on the 11th day and then every 5 working days thereafter. A centre guide to managing CAP actions will be published shortly.

Also coming soon, centres will have the facility to upload staff CVs and certificates/CPD whilst qualifications are being submitted through the web system. We are currently developing an electronic process that will enable this. The process is being developed to also support the way in which centres communicate staff amendments. 

We will continue to listen to centres as we look to improve processes and procedures so that we can reduce burden on centres.  

Arrangements with all centres for summative external moderation have been confirmed by lead external moderators (LEMs). The majority of subject moderation activities are complete with a small number outstanding. All external moderation processes planned for each AHE centre must be complete prior to final awards boards (FABs) that are scheduled to take place between 24 June and 5 July. 

As an Access Validating Agency (AVA), Agored Cymru has awarding body linkage (ABL) with UCAS. All AHE results, including credit and grading data, are provided to UCAS. This data is then made available to higher education providers to inform admissions. As part of the agreement associated with ABL, Agored Cymru must work within UCAS timelines in relation to awards and certification.

¹AHE e-certificates will be processed via the Veri platform from 23 July 2024. Learners will receive an email to the address that was included in their registration when their certificate is available.

One of the things that centres must do is to register learners within set deadlines. These deadlines are: 

✅Access to Higher Education: Register learners’ 60 credits on the AHE Diploma within 42 days of the start date of the course. 

✅Qualifications Wales/Ofqual/QALL: Register all learners within 25 working days of the start date of the course (short courses up to and including 15 weeks duration). 

✅Qualifications Wales/Ofqual/QALL: Register all learners within 40 working days of the start date of the course (longer courses more than 15 weeks duration). 

We expect centres to meet these other requirements: 

☑️ Submit claims within 6 months of the end date of the course. 

☑️ Attend a standardisation event at least once every two years. 

☑️ Acknowledge the Centre Action Plan (CAP) within 10 working days of receipt of an EQA report. 

☑️ Address all required actions within the CAP by the deadlines issued. 

☑️ Pay all invoices within the specified timeframe. 

Please review the Centre Requirements and Responsibilities webpage for latest updates and changes. 

Queries regarding assessment, quality assurance and award of all non-access qualifications/units.

Queries regarding administration and how to register learners and submit claims.

Queries regarding content, review and development of qualifications/units.