The Qualifications and Credit Framework (QCF) was the national credit transfer system for education qualification in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

and

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

until October 2015.. The replacement was the Regulated Qualification Framework. The QCF replaced the

National Qualifications Framework A national qualifications framework is a formal system describing qualifications. 47 countries participating in the Bologna Process are committed to producing a national qualifications framework. Other countries not part of this process also hav ...

(NQF), which closed for accreditations at the end of 2010. Scotland has its own system, the

Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework The Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF) is the national credit transfer system for all levels of qualifications in Scotland. Awards are classified under the framework at ''levels'', and study undertaken at that level is valued ...

Overview

Every unit and qualification in the framework has a

credit Credit (from Latin verb ''credit'', meaning "one believes") is the trust which allows one party to provide money or resources to another party wherein the second party does not reimburse the first party immediately (thereby generating a debt), ...

value (where one credit represents 10 hours of learning time). There are three different sizes of qualification: * awards (1 to 12 credits) * certificates (13 to 36 credits) * diplomas (37 credits or more) In addition, each qualification has a level of difficulty from Entry level at the bottom to Level 8 at the top. The title of each qualification within this framework contains details of the size (award/certificate/diploma), level of difficulty (Entry to Level 8) and the general content of the qualification. The QCF is a national framework, referenced to the

European Qualifications Framework The European Qualifications Framework (EQF) acts as a translation device to make national qualifications more readable across Europe, promoting workers' and learners' mobility between countries and facilitating their lifelong learning. The EQF a ...

(EQF). The EQF is a meta-framework intended as a reference so that qualifications in nation frameworks such as the QCF are understood across member states. (Note that QCF levels 1-3 are equivalent to EQF levels 2-4.) The QCF does not include previous qualifications that are now defunct, such as the

O Level The O-Level (Ordinary Level) is a subject-based qualification conferred as part of the General Certificate of Education. It was introduced in place of the School Certificate in 1951 as part of an educational reform alongside the more in-depth ...

which was replaced by GCSEs in 1988. Officially, defunct qualifications are not part of the QCF and therefore have no level, but are still as valued as their replacement equivalent.Courses Plus Qualification Comparison Tool
/ref> QCF common English and Welsh qualifications

QCF common English and Welsh qualifications

References

Educational qualifications in the United Kingdom Academic transfer Education in the United Kingdom {{UK-edu-stub

Overview

See also

References