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Very few (no?) aims starting with a 6 were QCF, if I remember correctly. Also, and marginally more sensibly, it would have QCF in the aim title?
I know we've been shouting about this for a while, but, given the lack of any sensibleness from ESFA on the subject, if it's not obviously FL3 now or last year, I'd totally give the learners FL3 entitlement and not worry about it too much.
I'm very happy to continue to use the rule of "if it's not 2 A Levels/4 AS, and doesn't have legal entitlements, it's not full".
What about if it is QCF but also a "Vocational and technical" qual with no legal entitlements, is that possible? Explaining that to the temps we hire do do the data entry, and have to determine prior attainment, is tricky! Determining Prior Attainment should not be this difficult.
This is all assuming we know exactly the aim they did, which sometimes isn't the case if they don't have a PLR and are just self-declaring. In those cases, we'd just have to make a best guess.
What is the difference between QCF, Tech Levels, NVQ, GNVQ, Applied Generals etc? I don't teach, so they're meaningless distinctions to me. How do data teams know what's what, if it's not indicated in the LARS or Ofqual?
"What about if it is QCF but also a "Vocational and technical" qual with no legal entitlements, is that possible?"
No? [gritted teeth emoji] I think *all* L3 QCF Dips were FL3, it was only the QCF Certs where a *few* were but most weren't (and as they're not listed as possibles, then they can be ignored). In a sense this was all a lot easier when it only mattered for under 23s as they were much less likely to have weird quals from the dark ages (ie the 90s)!
Ruth Canham-James
Full Level 3 or Not Full Level 3
Edited
Quiz for you. Is a student who already has aim 60188819, considered to have a Full level 3 or not? The ILR Spec says;
That Diploma has no legal entitlements (it never has done), so that makes it Prior Attainment code 5, meaning they can use the First Full Level 3 full funding for a new level 3 (that does have legal entitlements).
However, if that Diploma is QCF, that means it's also under the definition of Prior Attainment code 6, meaning they're not eligible to get funded to do another full level 3.
Firstly, how do I know if an aim is QCF? Assuming this aim is QCF, how do I determine Prior Attainment when it fits into two categories?
I asked ESFA about a similar aim 60346656 a couple of years ago, and they said;
If that last bit is true, then why does the ILR Spec list other definitions? A slight difference is these two aims is that the one I queried was labelled "Vocationally-Related Qualification" and the one I'm looking at now is "Other General Qualification".
This is before you even get the query over what to do about aim aim that used to have legal entitlements, but doesn't now, and whether that counts as Full Level 3 or not. There absolutely should be a definitive marker on every aim to determine whether it counts as a Full Level (as there used to be), instead of all of us trying to battle through these indecipherable distinctions.