All reputable awarding organisations (exam body) are recognised by the qualification regulators for England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The regulators are the Office of the Qualifications and Examinations Regulation (Ofqual) in England, Qualifications Wales (Wales), the Council for Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment (CCEA) in Northern Ireland, and the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) in Scotland.

Awarding organisations (AO) research, design, develop and then manage the quality of its portfolio of qualifications to ensure that the qualifications are delivered to a consistent high standard in the UK and internationally.

The AO will award the certificate of achievement on successful achievement of their qualification. AOs do not deliver training that leads to the achievement of their qualifications, but approves educational institutions, training providers and others to do so.

Learndirect are approved by several awarding organisation that audit learndirect periodically to ensure we have the processes and people to deliver and assess their qualifications to the correct standard.

Regulators set the rules that awarding organisations, must meet when designing and awarding regulated qualifications, particularly around the validity, reliability and standards of the assessments.

Regulated qualifications are taken by learners in England for several reasons, one of the main reasons being that often UK Government funding is linked to qualifications being regulated.

learndirect offers a wide range of regulated qualifications in different subject areas and industry sectors, which includes a mixture of short compliance qualifications and the longer technical vocational education & training (TVET) qualifications that prepares learners with the skills to succeed in today’s global economy.

Regulated qualifications are written in conjunction with industry experts and reflect UK legislation and standards. The delivery of these qualifications are quality assured, and the assessments are marked or moderated by each respective AO.

Many AOs offer an accreditation service that provides recognition for qualifications that have been developed and designed by other organisations, such as colleges and training providers, such as learndirect.

AO accredited qualifications are regarded as unregulated qualifications by Ofqual but are designed to the UK awarding standard and must have measurable learning outcomes and assessment criteria that meet the standard.

AO accredited qualifications that are offered by learndirect have been reviewed for approval and are subject to ongoing quality assurance by an AO quality team ensuring they meet the continued highlevel quality requirements of that AO. The assessments of these qualifications are managed by the owner organisation.

Learners successfully achieving an accredited qualification will be awarded with an AO or learndirect certificate of achievement, to confirm their new skills and knowledge.

Click here to download our Quality Assurance PDF.