The long reach and big impacts of short-cycle courses

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Published two years ago, the most recent iteration of the UK Frameworks for Higher Education Qualifications includes generic descriptors for awards conferred at FHEQ Level 4 (England, Wales & Northern Ireland) or SCQF Level 7 (Scotland) and FHEQ Level 5 or SCQF Level 8.

We've now published a new Characteristics Statement which details the general expectations of qualifications earned from short-cycle courses – provision which takes place at these levels, which is structured by design to lead to these awards, and whose emphasis, focus and function most commonly relates to professional, vocational or technical study.

The Short Cycle Characteristics Statement is the first in a series of new or revised Characteristics Statements which describe expectations that build upon those articulated with the Frameworks for Higher Education Qualifications. They support a more explicit emphasis upon the application of knowledge in the development of evidence-based judgement, decision-making and professional practice, through processes of authentic and inclusive learning and assessment.

Like all of QAA's sector-owned reference points, our new Characteristics Statement for Short Cycle Awards draws relevance, value, participation and knowledge from having been developed in consultation with colleagues across the UK tertiary education sector, including, in this case, colleagues from De Montfort University, the University of Lancashire, Nottingham Trent University, the University of Cumbria, the Open University, the University of Northumbria at Newcastle, London School of Science & Technology, Edge Hill University, Birmingham City University, the University of Exeter, Exeter College and Kaplan Open Learning.

Our decision to publish the Short Cycle Characteristics Statements ahead of the other Characteristics Statements was informed by our commitment to help the sector navigate three interconnected aspects of the evolving HE landscape.

• Increased participation in higher level learning. Short-cycle awards can deliver sufficient learning at a higher level to equip students with the skills they need to enter and progress in the workplace.
  
• Greater emphasis on life-long learning. Short-cycle awards can play a useful role across the UK in upskilling the existing workforce. In England they can also serve as building blocks for those degrees eligible for LLE funding that allow learners to reach a natural break point in their studies and receive an interim (short-cycle) award and move into employment with an option to complete their studies in the future.
  
• The role out of HTQs in England: Higher Technical Qualifications (HTQs) are English Level 4 and 5 qualifications which are designed specifically to support the development of a workforce ready to meet current and future challenges and address skills shortages across key sectors of the economy.

Our work around HTQs has been developed in partnership with Lord Sainsbury's Gatsby Charitable Foundation – a renowned philanthropic organisation which supports development in education, sciences and the arts, and which has worked with DfE and IFATE (the predecessor of Skills England) to develop the process by which these qualifications are approved as HTQs, and which continues to explore ways to enhance the working of this process for awarding bodies and providers. Our new Characteristics Statement is accompanied by the publication of a toolkit to support this process, published in partnership with our colleagues at Gatsby.

There is, in short, an extraordinary depth of expertise and breadth of perspectives which has contributed to the development of this document. As such, it reflects the interests and aspirations of the sector in this area of provision, as well as the challenges faced. It is also informed, through discussions between our own Quality & Standards and Public Affairs Teams – and with higher education consultants and industry stakeholders – the policy aspirations and imperatives of lifelong learning (spearheaded by the launch of the LLE in England), post-16 education and industrial strategies.

In the discussions between policymakers and educators around lifelong learning, we've seen a lot of talk recently about the importance of appropriate exit points at which learners can be awarded named and recognised qualifications. There are evident advantages in this of fostering a clear and shared understanding of the expectations and opportunities of short-cycle provision.

This area of provision can address the overwhelming enthusiasm voiced by political parties across the four nations of the UK for lifelong learning, as well as the UK Government's ambitions to have two-thirds of young people participating in higher-level learning (at Level 4 or higher, in FE, HE or apprenticeships) before the age of 25, and the expectation that education should underpin industrial development and economic growth. As such, short-cycle courses offer benefits to both new and returning learners at all stages of their working lives, enhancing their career prospects while addressing the ongoing and emerging skills needs of employers with immediate relevance and agility.

Short-cycle qualifications increase the opportunities for students from a range of backgrounds and starting points to engage with higher levels of learning. Their purposes include promoting connections between education and employment, preparing students new to higher education for their first professional roles, offering professional development opportunities and career-change pathways for those already in work, and providing varied opportunities to learn, associated with – and underpinned by – the award of academic credit, which can facilitate progression to further study and qualifications.

We are increasingly seeing examples across the sector of provision designed to afford innovative and flexible delivery models, to meet the needs of working and commuting students, those with family responsibilities, and those whose availability for study is determined by their obligations to employers supporting their ambitions to upskill and reskill. Short-cycle courses are often especially appropriate to this model, as providers promote educational opportunities beyond more traditional modes of delivery, durations of study and target awards.

The quality and utility of a short-cycle qualification is not simply determined by its level, credit-structure or length. Its value is founded in the purposeful design of a programme, the learning benefits perceived by the student, the quality of their learning experience, and the outcomes that may be achieved in relation to each student's personal and professional goals.

When designed and delivered to levels of quality equal to the commitment expected of its learners, this kind of provision can significantly transform the lives of those learners, and help to enrich their impacts upon their workplaces and communities. By learning from and sharing our sector's understanding of effective practice in this area, our new Characteristic Statement has been formulated to support providers in the development of provision which, in promoting key national policy objectives, can achieve precisely that.