ABSTRACT
After a somewhat shaky start the NVQ policy made a considerable recovery during the early 1990s. SVQs were developed and launched in Scotland; a consistent approach to the elaboration of occupational standards of competence was established; work on the formulation of higher level vocational qualifications accelerated; the 80 per cent target for NVQ coverage by the end of 1992 was achieved; and with the introduction of the GNVQ the NCVQ greatly increased its coverage in the school and college sectors. This progress notwithstanding, there were increasing concerns that in the rush to make the qualifications available other problems had been sidelined: notably the slow rate of N/SVQ penetration, for example; and the perceived deficiencies in the assessment process. There was also a more general acknowledgment that the imperative to have the new awards in place had compromised their quality (see DfEE, 1995). In this chapter we will examine the attempts of policy-makers to improve the qualifications between 1994 and 1997, hastened as they were by significant political interventions. Moreover, the institutional environment within which the alterations to the N/SVQs and GNVQs were advanced was also transformed during this period, something that further affected the change process. Because the review activity was frequently characterized by extensively detailed descriptions of the respective qualifications’ arrangements and structures, and the proposed changes, we will be necessarily selective in our own treatment.
