Two Skills White Papers (July 2003 and March 2005) and the subsequent Leitch review (December 2006) have called for radical reforms of qualifications for adults and employers. They point to an 'alphabet soup' of qualifications, which few understand and which have little currency for employment or progression to more learning.

During 2006, QCA has been working with the Skills for Business Network to conduct a sector-by-sector audit of the available qualifications and their level of acceptance and usefulness in the market place. With each sector working towards a strategy for its own qualifications, we envisage many qualifications being removed from the framework, and others being updated or added. We envisage the development of a new breed of qualifications, designed specifically to take advantage of the new QCF. These will be built from core and optional units so that a single qualifications structure can accommodate a range of related roles or occupations. For example, an IT qualification might have options for security, maintenance, troubleshooting and using website software.

This approach will rationalise occupational qualifications while ensuring that the unit structure supports a range of options that meet the particular skills needs of an individual or employer. Further flexibility can be achieved by encouraging employers to develop their own units of training, which can also be recognised in the framework and contribute towards an accredited qualification.

Developing the QCF - involving learners As part of the process to develop the Qualifications and Credit Framework (QCF), QCA interviewed almost 1,000 adults about their views on credit and qualifications, and discovered that: over a third of those interviewed (and notably those between 16 and 24) felt they didn't know where to start with vocational training and qualifications 84 per cent knew little or nothing about the current vocational qualifications system 61 per cent would be more likely to undertake training if they knew more about what was on offer over three-quarters felt that training at work would be of more value to them if it were recognised by organisations beyond their current employer.