ABSTRACT
Although its remit was to construct a framework of vocational qualifications based on existing awards, the NCVQ had embarked on the development of an NVQ system based on qualifications of a new type, which required competence to be defined in a particular way. They were new products to all intents and purposes. The absence of awards of this type induced the NCVQ to adopt a concept of competence that had been developed with the YTS in mind. In order to begin attracting revenue, however, the NCVQ had given ‘conditional accreditation’ to certain other products. These were often qualifications that had been designed for use in the YTS. This led to criticism that the emerging NVQs were too taskoriented. The NCVQ also experienced further problems in its attempt to establish the NVQ framework in two other respects. It had almost no control over the process by which industry developed assessable standards of competence, because responsibility for the management of the standards programme was vested in the MSC. Furthermore, the NCVQ possessed insufficient powers to compel other agencies to work with it in establishing a coherent and transparent system of vocational qualifications.
