Develop: Phase 2 - developing new/revised units

Unit development and validation process

Writing and vetting of units must be done by someone involved in the subject area.

Where possible, you should try to have related units written by the same writer. Related units are those which form a sequence or are closely related in content. Below is a list of tools to help with the unit writing process:

Tools to help with the Unit writing process

There is also an on-line training course on SQA Academy which provides further exemplification and hints and tips to support the unit writing process. Instructions on how to join are in the unit writer brief.

Technical edit

When you send the units to us, we will check them to ensure they:

  • are consistent and coherent
  • are written in clear and simple English
  • do not introduce any unnecessary barriers to achievement for certain groups of candidates, eg by specifying a particular mode of communication for producing evidence, where this is not part of the outcome/unit competence
  • conform to SQA's technical requirements as defined in the relevant checklist

The checklists we use are:

After this technical edit, we will save the units as version 0.2 to reflect the stage they are at in the development process.

Subject specialist check

When the technically edited units are returned you should address any comments made by us, then arrange for them to be looked at by a subject specialist not involved in the writing to confirm they are ready to be used by practitioners.

You should address any comments made by the subject specialist and save the units as version 0.3 to reflect the stage they are at in the development process. The units and checklist 3s should then be sent to us to review. We will decide whether the units are validated and can be coded on our APS, or if further work is required.

Core Skills audit and validation

When units are validated, we will arrange for them to be reviewed by a Core Skills subject specialist for embedded Core Skills. Where it is evident that Core Skills are embedded, we will arrange for a statement detailing what Core Skills are embedded and at what level. We will also arrange for the Core Skills to be attached to the unit code on our APS. This will enable recognition of Core Skills achievement to be shown on candidates Core Skills Profile when they achieve the unit.