Last updated: 22 May 2007

Encouraging better performance

Effective and constructive regulation of the awarding bodies continues to lie at the core of our regulatory work. Although we are removing unnecessary bureaucracy from our regulatory activities, we have not changed our commitment to intervening directly when necessary. We still monitor the awarding bodies to ensure that they provide good-quality qualifications that meet the needs of learners, and, as part of our commitment to transparency, continue to publish our findings. In 2006 we published monitoring reports on EAL, ETCAL and NCFE.

Streamlining the qualification accreditation process

The introduction of the web-based accreditation (WBA) system in late 2005 has transformed and streamlined the qualification accreditation process, successfully reducing the administrative burden on awarding bodies. Developed and managed jointly by QCA, DCELLS and CCEA, the new system has reduced the typical time for accrediting qualifications from weeks to a matter of days. This enables the awarding bodies to respond to the needs of learners and employers by introducing qualifications more quickly, as well as making it easier for them to withdraw those that are no longer required.

"The web-based accreditation system has been really positively received here at City & Guilds. Over the last year, as staff have become more familiar with it, the process has got easier. It has come a long way from the paper-based submissions and is a great improvement."

City & Guilds

Reviewing the unregulated qualifications market

Accreditation is increasingly recognised by awarding bodies and learners as a badge of quality evidenced by the fact that QCA has now recognised 117 awarding bodies and has accredited around 5,000 qualifications. A survey commissioned by QCA during 2006 provides a clearer picture than ever before of the whole qualifications market. The survey revealed that there are over 400 unrecognised awarding bodies operating in England. Over the coming year, QCA will be engaging with these awarding bodies to consider how best to provide their learners with the confidence and security provided by accredited qualifications.

Reducing bureaucracy

During 2006, QCA's regulatory division and the National Assessment Agency (NAA) worked closely to consult with awarding bodies, centres and other partners about how we can reduce bureaucracy and develop a common process for recognising centres.

As outlined in the Government's White Paper 'Further education, raising skills, improving life chances', published in March 2006, QCA is planning to reduce the amount of monitoring of further education colleges by the awarding bodies. QCA and other members of the Bureaucracy Reduction Group are working together to define and deliver a less bureaucratic approach to monitoring that continues to safeguard learners’ interests.

Web-based accreditation

• Over 1,000 requests have been submitted via the web-based system in the last 12 months.
• Since the introduction of WBA, the average accreditation time, from the submission being completed to accreditation being granted, is just one day.
• In 2006, the quickest accreditation time was 19 minutes.
• The longest accreditation time was just five working days, compared with an average of eight weeks in 2005.

2006 summer examinations

QCA publishes a monitoring report each year on the awarding bodies based in England that offer A level and GCSE qualifications.

	QCA expectation	Performance in 2006
		AQA	Edexcel	OCR
% of question papers dispatched to centres on time	100	100 (100)	100 (100)	100 (100)
% of question papers without errors	100	99.1 (99.0)	98.7 (99.1)	98.6 (99.2)
% of exam results issued to centres on time	100	100 (100)	100 (100)	99.9 (100)
% of priority enquiries about exam results completed within 20 days	100	100 (100)	100 (100)	100 (100)
% of exam papers copied and sent out at least 10 days before the deadline for enquiries about results	100	100 (100)	100 (99.8)	100 (99.7)

Equivalent figures for 2005 are provided in brackets
For further information please refer to Report on performance of the awarding bodies for general qualifications in 2006, published in March 2007.