The SCQF Partnership – the Scottish project partner – organised an input on the project on 17 May, 2018 in Glasgow to the SCQF Forum members.

The SCQF Forum is a group established by the SCQF Partnership as a national committee of key organisations with responsibility for providing or supporting education and training in Scotland. Its main purpose is to:

• enable those organisations, and the sectors they represent, to work together to make full use of the SCQF in meeting needs for access to, and participation in, lifelong learning;
• actively support the wider debate and recognition of the SCQF as an enabling framework which underpins, supports and influences Scottish lifelong learning policies.

Members of this group include: Scottish Funding Council, Scottish Chambers of Commerce, Scottish Qualifications Authority, Scottish Union Learning, City and Guilds, College Development Network,Scottish Enterprise, QAA Scotland, Connect, National Parent Forum Scotland, Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, NHS Education Scotland and Scottish Union Learning

The session focused on the topic of the NQF-in project of the inclusion of non-formal learning into national qualifications framework. The presentation was given by Sheila Dunn, Head of Quality and International Development at the SCQF Partnership.

The aim of the session was to present the topic, the context, the activities and the outputs of the NQF-in project; the country reports of the 7 partner countries (Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Hungary, Ireland, Poland and Scotland). The presentation showed also the organisational and financial model solutions devised by the project partners.

The Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF) includes all types of learning and all sectors within Scottish Education with a single set of level descriptors and one process of inclusion. There is no associated legal act and the framework is not regulated so the other frameworks introduced within this project are very different in nature to the SCQF. Participants were interested to hear the range of types of qualifications frameworks in the partner countries and the different methods for the inclusion of non-formal learning. They were also interested in the report on the organisational and financial models and there was some discussion around the financial models as in Scotland the owners of non formal learning currently bear the costs of inclusion. The Forum agreed that it would be worthwhile the SCQF Partnership reflecting on the outcomes of this project in order to identify any lessons to be learnt.