Awarding bodies are asked to submit their higher technical qualifications for approval via the online application form. The key task will be to evidence that qualifications meet the three core approvals criteria. We have provided additional guidance which has been embedded within the form.

Below is a summary of the evidence you will be expected to provide. It is possible to save your progress and return to the form later by selecting the save option and providing an email address.

1. Section 1: terms and conditions and data security

This section requires awarding bodies to agree the Institute’s terms and conditions of approval and note the Institute’s approach to data security. The Institute’s privacy statement is included below.

 

2. Section 2: awarding body information

The purpose of this section is to capture contact details and ensure that awarding bodies meet the relevant regulatory requirements of either Ofqual or Office for Students.

Evidence required:

  • Ofqual and Office for Students recognition/registration numbers

3. Section 3: qualification information

This section of the form requires basic information about the qualification including title and level.

Evidence required:

  • qualification or institutional reference numbers

4. Section 4: route and occupational standards

This section requires the awarding body to identify the respective digital occupational standards the qualification aligns to.

Evidence required:

  • identification of occupational standards qualification aligns to
  • a document detailing the purpose and content of the qualification, for example a specification of content or syllabus
  • evidence of employer engagement in the development of the qualification that will support the written responses required in this section of the submission

5. Section 5: knowledge, skills, and behaviours coverage within qualification

This section requires the awarding body to demonstrate that as many of the knowledge, skill and behaviour statements are covered as can reasonably be expected.

Evidence required:

  • mapping of qualification content to knowledge, skills, and behaviours in the application form
  • justification for the exclusion of any knowledge, skills, or behaviours from the qualification on the basis that these cannot be delivered in a classroom environment and are contingent on being in work in the occupation

6. Section 6: additional occupationally relevant content

This section requires the awarding body to justify the inclusion of any additional occupationally relevant content.

Evidence required:

  • identification and rationale for the inclusion of additional content
  • employer evidence supporting inclusion

7. Section 7: assessment

Awarding bodies will be asked to outline the methods used to assess the content of the qualification and provide a rationale for why these methods are valid for the qualification.

Evidence required:

  • awarding bodies should provide evidence of their assessment through submission of example briefs and sample assessment materials and confirm that the assessment provides full coverage of the relevant knowledge, skills, and behaviours.

Rationale setting out:

  • why these methods are the most appropriate way of assessing the knowledge, skills, and behaviours from the occupational standards
  • how they ensure the assessment balances validity, manageability, reliability, comparability, and minimising bias
  • how they ensure that assessment is applied in an occupationally relevant context
  • how the assessment will support and prepare a learner for entry into the workplace

The employers that have been consulted to ensure that the assessment meets employer expectations.

8. Section 8: employer engagement

Awarding bodies must demonstrate that they have worked with employers in the development and delivery of the submitted qualification and they have employer support and validation.

Evidence required may include:

  • reports or documentation from development and testing of qualifications (produced by awarding bodies as part of their existing internal processes)
  • letters of support from employers involved in the development

In this section, evidence should be provided that the qualification has employer support and validation. Awarding bodies should demonstrate how they have worked with a range of employers that recruit into the aligned occupation in the development and delivery of the submitted qualification. This could include documents detailing the work of employer groups/panels that contributed to the development of the qualification (e.g. validation documents) or letters of support from employers.

Any letters of support should be recent (written in last 6 months), should be individual responses from a named person and should outline how a particular employer was involved in the development of the qualification and why the qualification meets industry needs. Institute may contact employers cited in the application. 

9. Higher technical qualification approval privacy notice

Our contact details

Name: Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education

Address:

Level 1
151 Buckingham Palace Road
London
SW1W 9SZ

 

Email: htq.approvals@education.gov.uk

The type of personal information we collect

We currently collect and process the following information:

  • name of the primary contact
  • telephone number
  • email address

How we get personal information and why we have it

All of the personal information we process is provided to us directly by you through the online submission form for one of the following reasons:

  • maintaining contact with the awarding body throughout the higher technical qualification approvals process
  • maintaining contact with the awarding body post higher technical qualification approval

Under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the lawful bases we rely on for processing this information are:

  • we need it to perform a public task (under our governing legislation, the apprenticeships, skills, children and learning act 2009)
  • we need it for the performance of a contract

What we do with the information we have

We use the information that you have given us in order to:

  • call or email the primary contact at the awarding body to address questions/queries related to the submission for higher technical qualification approval
  • call or email the primary contact at the awarding body to provide additional information on the submission for higher technical qualification approval
  • call or email the primary contact at the awarding body post review for the purposes of feedback on the submission for higher technical qualification approval
  • call or email the primary contact at the awarding body for the purposes of renewal of the approved status for higher technical qualifications

We may share this information with the Department for Education, Ofqual, and the Office for Students. The stated organisations may wish to contact you for the purposes of evaluation of the programme or evaluation of the submitted qualifications.

How we store your information

Your information is securely stored on internal Institute file storage and information management systems.

We keep the name, email address and telephone number information for the primary contact at the awarding body for seven years. We will then dispose of your information by securely deleting all electronic copies of the data.

Your data protection rights

Under data protection law, you have rights including:

Your right of access - You have the right to ask us for copies of your personal information.

Your right to rectification - You have the right to ask us to rectify information you think is inaccurate. You also have the right to ask us to complete information you think is incomplete.

Your right to erasure - You have the right to ask us to erase your personal information in certain circumstances.

Your right to restriction of processing - You have the right to ask us to restrict the processing of your information in certain circumstances.

Your right to object to processing - You have the right to object to the processing of your personal data in certain circumstances.

Your right to data portability - You have the right to ask that we transfer the information you gave us to another organisation, or to you, in certain circumstances.

You are not required to pay any charge for exercising your rights. If you make a request, we have one month to respond to you.

Please contact us at htq.approvals@education.gov.uk if you wish to make a request.

How to complain

You can also complain to t​he ICO if you are unhappy with how we have used your data.

The ICO’s address:            

Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow Cheshire
SK9 5AF

 

Helpline number: 0303 123 1113