Businesses develop own exams

Businesses are developing their own exams to test candidates due to confusion over school qualifications, MSPs have heard.

Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) chief executive Janet Brown faced questions at Holyrood on the controversial National 4 qualifications, which have no external exams.

They were brought in as part of the Curriculum for Excellence along with National 5s to replace Standard Grade courses.

Conservative Michelle Ballantyne questioned Ms Brown at the Education and Skills Committee. The South Scotland MSP said there was “a lot of confusion” among some businesses over National 4s.

She said: “A lot of employers are telling me that they are going to devise their own assessments when they are trying to recruit people because they really don’t understand it any more. So what are you doing about that?”

Ms Brown said the SQA engaged with businesses during the development of qualifications, adding: “Working with employers is an absolutely critical part of what we do.”

She said businesses were comfortable with the concept of internal and ongoing assessment. She added: “I think what we’ve seen over the last couple of years is an increasing concern about how National 4 is perceived across the board and we need to go back and have that further discussion with them on that.”