As an Ofqual recognised awarding organisation, we pride ourselves on driving up standards in education through provision of regulated qualifications that sit on the Regulated Qualifications Framework (RQF), but also by recognising the great work that centres do deliver more bespoke or niche courses that don’t necessarily lend themselves to the regulated environment.

What does ‘Endorsement’ mean?

When we endorse a course of learning we are declaring that we have confidence in your ability to develop and deliver quality courses in your areas of expertise. Whilst we don’t have a hand in defining the content of these courses, or design, mark or monitor the assessments, the TQUK endorsement status shows that you are consistently meeting the high standards that we demand from our centres.

We refer to these programmes of learning as endorsed courses as opposed to regulated qualifications. Regulated qualifications are the qualifications we are recognised by Ofqual to award. These go through stringent development and accreditation processes which our endorsed provision isn’t subject to.

For this reason, the certificates that your learners receive will look slightly different to the ones that we award for qualifications. For example, they will bear the TQUK endorsed stamp, and the wording will refer to courses rather than qualifications.

What are the implications?

It is important that users of qualifications – candidates, employers, colleges and universities – can be confident in the certificate that they are presented with and that they understand what it represents. We, as an awarding organisation and you, as a centre, have a responsibility towards our learners to make sure we do everything we can to help them navigate the sector and make informed choices.

Education is a heavily regulated sector, and rightly so. One of the regulatory requirements that we have to meet as an Ofqual awarding organisation is centred around making sure that learners ‘know what they are getting’. This extends to making sure that centres are marketing regulated qualifications and endorsed courses clearly. You need to make sure that all of your learners know the difference between regulated and endorsed provision and know which of these they are working towards.

If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to get in touch with our Business Development team, or call us (+852) 3100-0009.