Quality Assurance

The purpose of the quality assurance system is to work with recognised Centres to develop their internal quality assurance systems to ensure the safe and secure award of credit.

NB The Quality Assurance system does not cover Access to HE provision.

Quality monitoring - Once a Centre has been recognised OCN South Eastern Region will undertake ongoing monitoring through an assigned Quality Reviewer.  Monitoring will focus on the following areas:

• Ensure Centres are operating against the Centre Recognition criteria.
• Ensure the Centre’s quality systems are robust.
• Confirm that the Centre has appropriately qualified staff and resources to deliver the Qualifications, courses and units.

Quality Reviewers will undertake a schedule of Centre quality review visits for all new and existing OCN South Eastern Region Centres. Centres receive a copy of the Centre Recognition Monitoring Report on completion of the visit.

Quality Improvement Plan – Actions identified and agreed during the quality review visits and from the OCN South Eastern Region customer service team, including development, operations and finance, will be incorporated into a Centre Quality Improvement Plan and against which progress will be reviewed.

Direct Claims Status –The direct claims status is based upon the Centre having staff who have Approved Internal Verifiers and where quality assurance systems are operating effectively.

Approved Internal Verifier Status (AIVS) is the mechanism whereby the OCN approves named individuals to authorise the Recommendation of the Award of Credit (RAC) for specific courses at a recognised Centre. For more information click here

External Subject Moderation External Subject Moderators are appointed to a Centre by the OCN, where there are no Approved Internal Verifiers; requirement of the Qualification or where large numbers of learners have been registered. For more information click here

Standardisation The purpose of standardisation is to ensure the consistency in the application of level and credit across N/OCN provision and to ensure consistency of practice in assessment and verification. For more information click here