Friday, 12 November 2010 10:12 Isabel Sutcliffe, FAB chair, chats with FE News about the challenges of a new open qualifications market for awarding bodies.

Isabel explains that, for nearly 20 years or more, awarding bodies have been used to working with agencies defining what they have to do, and the organisations approving qualifications before they go to market. This requirement has now been removed. For awarding bodies to be able to move forward into an open market, there is a need to remove the legacy of these previous hurdles that were restricting awarding organisations and impeding an open qualifications market, Ms Sutcliffe says. 

Discussing the changing role of Sector Skills Councils:
Ms Sutcliffe also explains that the SSC's role is likely to be re-defined, moving away from impeding awarding bodies and engaging with market needs.

Ofqual 
Ofqual is now a fully vested independent regulator, moving from micro to macro regulation of awarding body qualifications. Ms Sutcliffe explains that this gives awarding bodies a lot more freedom to respond to employers and learners' needs to quickly develop high quality regulated qualifications into the market.

Click on the image below to hear what Ms Sutcliffe has to say about the changing market for awarding bodies: