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navigation>> current activities [ UKCEP]/[Access to HE] [credit-based funding] | related activities | NICATS manual | future plans
The
principle of credit accumulation and transfer is that learners should be able
to claim credit for each piece of assessed learning achievement, no matter how
small, and then be able to build these 'credits' towards meaningful overall
awards. This allows learners to access learning and qualifications at a pace,
and through a learning style, suitable to each particular individual.
In order for this system to succeed it is necessary to have a central point of co-ordination where agreed credit values for different courses (and their constituent units) can be recorded. In this way, when learners are provided with records of achievement by the institution at which they have studied, the smaller chunks of learning which make up the overall programme of study completed will each be identified, along with their accompanying credit points and levels.
This will assist learners to move more flexibly between programmes and providers to suit their own needs and to build up an overall portfolio of learning achievement relevant to their aspirations. In order, however, for individual learners, gatekeepers to further learning, or employers to be able to use these records of achievement meaningfully, it will be necessary for the information to be presented in a recognised standard format.
When the Northern Ireland Credit Accumulation and Transfer System becomes fully operational, it is proposed that learners in further and higher education institutions and other subscribing educational delivery bodies should be able to record their achievements on a standardised credit transcript which is recognised across Northern Ireland. Each identified 'chunk' of learning will be accompanied, on these transcripts, by its associated NICATS level and number of credits (credit value). The example shown, drawn from the Interim Report on the Wales FE Credit Framework (1995)1 , records individual learner achievements in measures of credit and level of complexity, by course or unit title and year of study/achievement. At present it is anticipated that these transcripts will be issued by the relevant awarding body (or, in some cases, the delivery institution, depending on the nature of the award).
At a further stage in the development of NICATS it is anticipated that the
information in relation to individual courses, and the units within them, will
be referenced to a specific NICATS code. Each certified piece of learning awarded
and recorded on the learner's credit transcript will be accompanied by a code
which can be cross-referenced to and freely consulted on a NICATS web-accessed
database which will provide further information on its content. The content
will be identified in terms of learning outcomes and assessment criteria, or
a brief synopsis of the unit's learning components. This will allow judgements
to be made on equivalence of learning and enable learners to ensure that full
recognition is given to achievement previously gained, thus gaining exemption
and avoiding repetition of learning.
1 An Interim Report on the Wales FE Credit Framework, produced by Fforwm's
Wales Modularisation & Credit Based Development Project, funded by the Welsh
Office (1995).
Currently staff in the NICATS Office are engaged in various projects concerned with developing flexible unit based provision based on the principles and specifications recommended by NICATS. New programmes of learning, developed in line with the NICATS specifications, will be recorded on a central database of units. Information supplied will be based on a minimal set of data associated with the achievement of each unit and will be expressed in terms of the unit title, its NICATS code, the learning outcomes to be achieved, their associated assessment criteria and the credit value of the unit (expressed in terms of credit points and level).
In addition a project is underway which seeks to ascribe credit equivalence to learning programmes on offer in the further education sector. Because institutions of further and higher education are not awarding bodies in their own right, learners are taught to the syllabuses of a variety of external examining bodies and assessed externally. All programmes of learning available in Northern Ireland will eventually be ascribed an agreed NICATS credit equivalence so that achievement of individual units or whole awards/qualifications can be expressed in terms of its credit value. A database of units, programmes and their NICATS credit equivalences will be posted on the NICATS website as the project progresses.
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