In order to simplify the existing skills education market, regulator Qualifications Wales has announced a reform to streamline the system to just eight new qualifications.
Currently, there’s an array of hundreds of qualifications but a consortium of City & Guilds and EAL (English as an Additional Language) who will be working with the regulator to design and deliver simplified but robust post-16 foundation, progression and apprenticeship qualifications. This comprehensive and robustly assessed system aims to remove the current complexities of planning a route into employment.
Qualifications Wales (Cymwysterau Cymru) says the new post-16 qualifications will include an overarching foundation qualification in construction and the built environment, and progression and apprenticeship qualifications in building services engineering and construction. These will be available to teach from September 2021.
Qualifications Wales’s director of qualifications policy & reform, Cassy Taylor, said: “We’re delighted to be awarding the contract for the development of new Construction and Built Environment qualifications for Wales to City & Guilds, working in partnership with EAL. The construction and building services sectors are large, diverse and a priority for Wales, and the new qualifications are being developed to meet the changing needs of the industry. They’ll enable workers to understand the role of new technologies in the sector, but will also give them the ability to maintain and repair the traditional buildings and structures we have in Wales.”
Kirstie Donnelly, managing director of City & Guilds Group, said: “Construction has been at the heart of City & Guilds Group since we were founded 140 years ago, and we’re really pleased to have won this joint bid in partnership with EAL to deliver qualifications for an industry that is so vital to the economic success of Wales.
“Qualifications Wales is leading the way in streamlining the approach to post-16 vocational qualifications and driving up standards, and we are pleased to be working together to develop qualifications that meet the needs of employers, learners and the wider community.
”We are also looking forward to building on the great relationship we’ve developed with Qualifications Wales through the City and Guilds/WJEC health and social care and childcare qualifications launching in September and taking standards to the next level to support vital skills development in Wales.”
Alison Parkes, managing director of EAL, said: “As the leading specialist awarding organisation in engineering we are immensely proud, in partnership with City & Guilds, to have been appointed by Qualifications Wales to support them in the reshaping of the skills landscape for Construction and the Built Environment – a pivotal sector in the Welsh economy.
“We are especially looking forward to working with Qualifications Wales and key stakeholders, to bring their vision and expectations to life. Through the development of qualifications for these crucial and essential industries, we recognise the important part we play in the journey of those who wish to have a career in the sector”.
Gareth Williams, standards and qualifications policy manager for the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) in Wales, commented: “As a stakeholder in the Construction and Built Environment review, CITB is looking forward to working with City & Guilds and EAL to develop new, up-to-date qualifications that will benefit both learners and the industry in Wales. The new qualifications will broaden learners’ horizons, by encouraging more employers to take an active role in developing the workforce of the future in Wales.”
Ed Evans, director of the Civil Engineering Contractors’ Association (CECA) for Wales, added: “Qualifications Wales’s engagement with the sector has been really strong. That means that this starts to be led by the sector, rather than being led by educationalists.”
In addition to these Foundation, Progression and Apprenticeship qualifications, Qualifications Wales is also working with WJEC/CBAC (formerly the Welsh Joint Education Committee) to develop approval criteria for a new GCSE in the built environment for first teaching from September 2021, together with an AS and A level in the built environment available for first teaching from September 2022.
