Qualifications Wales Act 2015

PART 2 ESTABLISHMENT AND PRINCIPAL AIMS OF QUALIFICATIONS WALES

2 Establishment of Qualifications Wales

(1) Qualifications Wales is established as a body corporate.

(2) Schedule 1 contains further provision about Qualifications Wales.

(3) Schedule 2 makes provision about transfers of staff and property to Qualifications Wales.

3 Principal aims of Qualifications Wales

(1) In exercising its functions, Qualifications Wales must act in a way that it considers appropriate for the purpose of achieving the following principal aims—

(a) ensuring that qualifications, and the Welsh qualification system, are effective for meeting the reasonable needs of learners in Wales;

(b) promoting public confidence in qualifications and in the Welsh qualification system.

(2) In considering what is appropriate for the purpose of achieving its principal aims, the matters to which Qualifications Wales is to have regard include (among other things)—

(a) the desirability of promoting sustainable growth in the Welsh economy;

(b) the desirability of promoting and facilitating the use of the Welsh language, including through the availability of assessment arrangements that provide for assessment through the medium of the Welsh language, and of qualifications that otherwise promote or facilitate the use of the Welsh language;

(c) the range and nature of qualifications available, and of their assessment arrangements;

(d) the reasonable requirements of employers, higher education institutions and the professions regarding education and training (including as to required standards of practical competence);

(e) whether the knowledge, skills and understanding required to be demonstrated for the purpose of determining whether a person is to be awarded a qualification reflect current knowledge and best practice;

(f) whether qualifications indicate a consistent level of attainment with that indicated by whatever Qualifications Wales considers to be comparable qualifications, whether awarded in Europe or elsewhere;

(g) whether qualifications are provided efficiently and so as to secure value for money;

(h) the respective roles played by, and responsibilities of, each of the following persons in respect of the Welsh qualification system (including by reference to co-operation between those persons, and their effectiveness in performing their roles)⁠—

(i) awarding bodies, learning providers, Qualifications Wales and the Welsh Ministers;

(ii) any other persons exercising functions that Qualifications Wales considers relevant for the purpose of the Welsh qualification system.

(3) References in this Act to the Welsh qualification system are to the system, taken as a whole, by which qualifications are awarded to persons assessed wholly or mainly in Wales for this purpose.