Commentary on Sections Part 2: Establishment and Principal Aims of Qualifications Wales Section 3: Principal aims of Qualifications Wales
12.This section sets out the principal aims of Qualifications Wales: these will underpin all of the work that Qualifications Wales undertakes – and Qualifications Wales will need always to ensure that its actions are compatible with these aims. This section requires Qualifications Wales, in exercising any function, to act in a way that it considers appropriate for the purpose of achieving the principal aims.
13.The first principal aim gives Qualifications Wales responsibility for ensuring the effectiveness of qualifications in meeting the reasonable needs of learners in Wales. The meaning of qualification is defined in section 56. While this principal aim is broad in scope, Part 4 of the Act (priority qualifications and approval of qualifications) provides for the prioritisation of some qualifications, so that Qualifications Wales may focus its activities on approving qualifications. Qualifications Wales will be able to designate other forms of qualifications under Part 5 as eligible for funding on certain programmes of learning and to regulate the award in Wales of those and other qualifications by recognised awarding bodies through conditions of recognition under Part 3 (see section 36). This principal aim also requires Qualifications Wales to take responsibility for the effectiveness of the qualification system in Wales (namely, the whole system by which qualifications are awarded to persons who are assessed wholly or mainly in Wales for those qualifications, as defined in section 3(3)). The ‘system’ is the infrastructure which underpins and enables the delivery of qualifications – it includes the way that qualifications are developed, delivered and awarded as well as what is developed, delivered and awarded.
14.The second principal aim requires Qualifications Wales to promote public confidence in both the qualifications and the supporting system. For the qualifications and the system to be truly effective, together they must inspire public confidence. An assessment of public confidence could include, for example, the level of confidence of employers, learning providers, learners, parents and carers in the relative value of qualifications taken in Wales compared with those taken, for example, in England.
15.Sub-section 2 sets out a non-exhaustive list of the matters to which Qualifications Wales must have regard in determining what is appropriate for the purpose of meeting its principal aims. While most of these matters are self-explanatory, additional notes are provided here to give context and/or examples to illustrate some of the terms: