ABSTRACT
In common with some of the earlier chapters in the book, this chapter highlights the important role that ‘bottom-up’ process-based initiatives have played and continue to play in reform of the English education and training system. By process-based initiatives I mean those such as ‘unitization’ or ‘records of achievement’ that are designed to bring about improvements in specific elements of the education system, but which do not set out to and cannot make structural changes to the whole national qualifications system. Here, I will take the case of the ‘formative value-added system’ (Spours and Hodgson, 1996) 1 as an example of such a ‘process-based’ initiative. I will also build on the argument, laid out in Chapter 1, that this type of process-based initiative, which has the potential to develop schools’ and colleges’ capacity to change and respond in a proactive way to qualifications reform, is a necessary and powerful tool in bringing about fundamental change to the system.
