SCQF-EQF Referencing Project

The European Commission is estimating a target date of 2011 for full referencing across member states. Most countries are currently developing frameworks and need this time. However less time was required for Scotland to reference the EQF to the SCQF because the SCQF was already established as Scotland's Lifelong Learning Framework. So we have completed the referencing of the SCQF to the EQF well ahead of this target date.

Read the SCQF-EQF Referencing Report.

This report has been signed off by the SCQF Partnership Board.

Similar reports have been produced for England, Northern Ireland and Wales and links to those reports are below:

England and Northern Ireland Report - QCF to EQF
Wales Report - CQFW to EQF

We have also worked collectively across the UK to produce a summary UK report which was submitted to the European Commission along with the individual country reports in 2009.

Read the Qualifications Frameworks of the UK EQF Referencing Report (Updated March 2010)

We would like to take this opportunity to thank the Chair and members of the Steering Group for guiding this work over the last year.

Our efforts were focused on the following key milestones:

1. Reference levels in the frameworks to the EQF levels
A matching exercise was carried out to review framework level descriptors and the aims, content and assessment criteria for major qualifications as well as the evidence for potential level-to-level matches with the EQF. Download the detailed consultation document we used. 

2. Promote quality assurance (QA) procedures
A digest of the QA procedures in use in Scotland in relation to the SCQF and the sub frameworks of the SCQF has been developed and is available to download here (plus annexes) with a summary also in Section 3 of the SCQF-EQF Referencing Report.

3. Make the referencing process transparent
All of the main stakeholders have included information relating to Reference Levels and Quality Assurance in their corporate communications.

4. Provide guidance of the European levels of main qualifications
Consideration will be given to how awarding and certificating bodies will explain the relationship with EQF.

5. Engage stakeholders
The SCQF maximised all opportunities to engage with stakeholders as well as contributing to the formal consultation.

UK EQF Coordination Group

Within the UK the four administrations responsible for each country's framework agreed that they would relate directly to the EQF, and that there would therefore be a number of national coordination points (NCPs). In Scotland the Scottish Government, in agreement with SCQF Partners, designated the SCQF Partnership as the NCP for Scotland. It was also agreed that the four countries would collaborate as they carried out their duties as NCPs. The UK EQF Coordination Group provides the forum for the NCPs and the most relevant stakeholders to work together, to provide a coherent approach across the UK.