We anticipate that approximately 30 students will complete the qualification in the academic year from 2016-17. These are comprised of students who are in the Aspire Academy (within-school centre for those at risk of permanent exclusion) and who are on a much reduced timetable. They are having weekly lessons of ICT during Year 10 and Year 11 which will culminate in them sitting the online tests.
Other students include those who cannot access the full range of other qualifications (e.g. those who have been absent due to pregnancy, those with medical needs who cannot take part in PE) and for whom it therefore benefits them to have an additional Level 2 qualification in order to access Level 3 courses at College. It is also delivered to those who have taken Computer Science but require competency in digital literacy in order to ensure they can enter the workplace with the pre-requisite skills needed for their chosen route.
In terms of the 120 guided learning hours, as this is a competence-based assessment program, the students will already have gained some of the required knowledge and skills through their prior learning (many of the elements will have been delivered during KS3 ICT courses throughout the time that the students are at SWS or across the curriculum or through personal use of ICT in the home), however where there are gaps in a student’s knowledge it would be the responsibility of the centre to ensure sessions were designed to help the student address their learning needs and ensure they meet the unit’s requirement in full prior to assessment.
This intervention may take place as weekly, timetabled slots and full day workshops where students can refine their skills before completing the assessments. Any students who had not sufficiently built up their skills through a large number of guided learning hours by the year of examination would not be entered for an assessment.