ABSTRACT
In this chapter we will examine how the NCVQ interpreted its remit and acted to implement NVQ policy between 1987 and 1989. It had been charged with establishing a new national framework of vocational qualifications within which existing awards could be slotted, and accredited as ‘NVQs’, once they had been modified to become more competence-based. Indeed, this is what the NCVQ initially understood its role to be (NCVQ, 1987a). Three factors affected the NCVQ’s capacity to effect its remit, however. First, at the time the NCVQ was set up in October 1986, no satisfactory method of assessing occupational competence existed. What development work there had been was based entirely on the requirements of YTS certification and had only been running for a short period of time. Second, despite some misgivings, the RVQ Working Group had recommended that the NCVQ should carry through its reform work on a voluntary basis. While this was necessary if its proposals were to receive government backing, it meant that in pursuing change the NCVQ had to rely on the strengths of its arguments, the attractiveness of the new system and the voluntary cooperation of educational bodies and employers. Third, the RVQ Working Group had also proposed that, once the national framework of vocational qualifications had been put in place at levels one to four, the NCVQ should be funded by a combination of levy income from accreditations and government grants. The government, however, specified that it should become selfsufficient by 1990-91. These factors might not have been important if the NCVQ had adhered to its original remit. However, the ambiguity of the RVQ Working Group’s proposals gave the NCVQ the scope to attempt to initiate change of a more profound kind.
