Over three rare hot days of Scottish sunshine in May, experts in qualifications, training and vocational education from across the world came together for our international study visit, delivered in partnership with British Council Scotland.
Our guests, representing countries across Africa, Asia and the Caribbean, wanted to learn about the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF), and importantly, how it has endured for 25 years and continues to enable a thriving lifelong learning landscape.
Over the three days, spanning visits and talks with universities, colleges, employers, training providers, qualification owners and more, we explored the SCQF in practice. But one theme surfaced repeatedly – the importance of partnership working to the success of the SCQF.
Building trust through partnership
While the SCQF was intentionally designed to map the existing Scottish education landscape and enable future innovations, it is trusted for more that its design. It is trusted because of long-standing, open collaboration between organisations that shape and deliver education and training in Scotland.
The SCQF was created after years of discussion about how to better connect Scotland’s education system through a shared framework based on credit and levels.
What made its implementation successful is that the Framework was, and still is, governed collectively by our partners and, by extension, the whole Scottish education system. Our founding partners, the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education, the Scottish Executive (now the Scottish Government), the Scottish Qualifications Authority (now Qualifications Scotland) and Universities Scotland, remain central to the partnership today, and have grown to include many other key agencies.
These relationships have not been transactional or short term. They have been transparent and grounded in shared purpose, allowing the SCQF to act not as a mechanism of control, but as an enabler across Scotland’s education and skills system.
A founding principle that endures
The SCQF’s partnership model was created in a large part thanks to Sir Andrew Cubie, who went on to become the first Chair of the SCQF Partnership.
As a special guest speaker on day one of the study visit, Andrew (pictured right) reflected to our delegates that his passion for true lifelong learning goes back to his childhood. As a child, he failed his 11+, which sparked his later-life mission for the need for respect to be given both to vocational and academic qualifications. “Parity of esteem” remains one of his mantras. When he was approached to become involved in formalising a Scottish framework to blend academic and vocational qualifications, in his words, he could hardly say no.
In 2006, Andrew got all the SCQF partners round a table at a restaurant in Edinburgh, with him footing the bill. He urged the partners to establish a company limited by guarantee and the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework Partnership was incorporated on 7 November 2006.
Partnership in practice
Our international colleagues saw the true collaborative nature of the Scottish education system in action throughout their visit.
It was fitting that the visit itself was delivered in partnership with British Council Scotland, with whom we share an ambition to showcase the very best of Scottish education on the world stage.
From our fantastic hosts at Glasgow Caledonian University – where discussions explored the foundations of the SCQF and approaches to Recognition of Prior Learning – to Celtic Renewables and Forth Valley College, delegates saw how the framework is applied across different settings. Whether through employer engagement with apprenticeships and work-based learning or innovative qualification delivery aligned with local industry needs, the common language of the SCQF and its flexible principles remained consistently tangible.
And, in hearing first-hand from SCQF School Ambassadors at All Saints Secondary School (pictured right) they saw how the Framework expands the understanding of the opportunities available for young people in meaningful and digestible ways.
Trust is not built into a framework. It is built around it.
There is no single blueprint that can be lifted from one country to another. But one lesson resonated strongly across our discussions: Qualifications frameworks are not just technical systems, they are social agreements that depend on trust, and that trust is built on partnership.
As we mark 25 years of the SCQF, this remains our most important insight. The ongoing success of the SCQF will rely on how we continue to invest in the relationships that sustain it.
Because, ultimately, a national qualifications framework’s value is not defined solely by how it is written, but by how widely it is trusted and used.
Continuing the conversation at SCQF@25
The themes explored during our international study visit – partnership, trust and shared purpose – remain as relevant today as they were when the SCQF was first established.
As we celebrate 25 years of the Framework, these ideas will take centre stage at a major milestone event in our anniversary year – the SCQF@25 Conference, taking place on 22 September at Glasgow Science Centre.
Bringing together voices from across Scotland’s learning, skills and employment landscape, the conference will provide an opportunity to reflect on the partnerships that have shaped the SCQF’s success, explore current challenges and opportunities, and consider how we can work together to support learners, employers and educators in the years ahead.
Please join us in the celebrations. Tickets are now on sale at bit.ly/SCQFConference