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Personally, I'd probably be mean and say it's not sufficiently transferable.
Do they have to understand English as a language in order to pass their Masters in script-writing? Absolutely they do. Is the course "focused on the subject of English (language and/or literature)"? Tangentially, at best. I think if ~50% of the modules are specifically dedicated to things like grammar, semantics, phonology, typology.. you know, proper English language topics, then you could potentially argue it.
As always though, if in doubt, raise a ticket. The ESFA qualifications team are normally pretty fast at responding in my experience.
Yeah we raised a ticket and have asked the EPAO for advice. First time I have come across one of these. Initially he wanted to use a Psychology degree which I said no to then he produced this. Trying to apply a bit of common sense to this one and the content does include professional writing skills at a high level so tempted to allow it through. Was never a fan of ACE but in some cases it was nice to have someone just to bounce things back if not 100%!
Pretty poor response from the service desk, I went back on this 3 times and then gave up.
"It is the training provider's responsibility to determine eligibility".
It is the ESFA that write the rules so a pretty poor showing if they can't/wont confirm something meets their requirements.
I actually went through and checked because I submitted a similar query quite a while ago, and got something just as useful
When we state that higher lever qualifications (including degrees) may be acceptable where they are predominantly in the subject of English/maths, we mean that the qualification’s content must be at least 50% in the subject of English or at least 50% in maths. Where this is English, the study should cover the ongoing development of reading, writing, speaking and listening skills.
We don’t run a service to check and validate if qualifications meet the requirements to be an acceptable equivalent for an apprenticeship. You must satisfy yourself that the weighting of the modules in the degree constitutes 50% or more English language or literature skills.
Appreciate this gives you a bit of added "flexibility" in determining your own fate, so to speak.. but I think I'd prefer a solid yes or no. I guess it's one of those where if you're happy, can justify why you're happy, and the EPAO will accept it.. you're good
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Functional skill exemption at higher levels
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Hi this is the first time someone has challenged this so a new one to me. An apprentice is trying to get exemption for English as they completed a Masters in screenwriting.
They are referring to this paragraph in the Gov spreadsheet "Where the apprentice has a qualification at level 4 or above (including degrees) and/or SCQF level 7 and above (such as an Advanced Higher), this is acceptable if the qualification is predominantly in the subject of English Language or English Literature and/or Mathematics. For example, 50% or more of the content and assessment of the qualification should be focussed on the subject of English (language and/or literature) or maths".
I have googled the content of this course and it states they will develop their writing, script reading, script editing and script development skills. Do you think this would be acceptable? Common sense makes me think yes but interested to hear other peoples thoughts.