Core skills were identified by employers as the skills that are most likely to be needed in any work environment. However, they only go up to SCQF Level 6 and recent consultation with employers identified that 'core skills' at a higher level must reflect the workbased requirements at a higher level. Therefore, 'career skills' were introduced for Technical and Professional Apprenticeships.
The Modern Apprenticeship Group carried out some work to identify a range of pansector SVQ units at SCQF 7 and above, grouped into the following headings:
- Business Administration
- Management (including Business Continuity and Governance)
- Customer Service
- Enterprise.
The list of career skills may be extended by MAG, but the inclusion of other units must be based on strong evidence of need. All units will be pansector units.
Candidates and employers should review the list of units and identify between two and five units from the career skills list, within the following parameters:
- Career skills for Technical Apprenticeships must be at SCQF Level 7 or above, and must be at SCQF Level 8 and above for Professional Apprenticeships
- There will be a threshold of 15 SCQF credits for Technical Apprenticeships and 20 SCQF credits for Professional Apprenticeships (each unit has a different credit, ranging from 315).
Example
For a professional Apprenticeship, the following units could be selected to meet the threshold of 20 credits:
- Manage and evaluate information systems - SCQF Level 8 and 6 SCQF credit points
- Manage physical resources - SCQF Level 8 and 9 SCQF credit points
- Negotiate in a business environment - SCQF Level 8 and 7 SCQF credit points.
Or
- Plan, run and evaluate projects - SCQF Level 8 and 10 SCQF credit points
- Manage risk - SCQF Level 8 and 10 SCQF credit points.
Both options give a total of 22 SCQF credits and are at SCQF level 8 or above, so both meet the requirements for a Professional Apprenticeship.
Read Guidance for Sector Skills Council: Overview
Read about core skills and Modern Apprenticeships
Read Information on Technical and Professional Apprenticeships