What is the Agored Cymru Quality Mark?
The Agored Cymru Quality Mark is a measure of excellence for learning programmes. It is a validation and celebration of outstanding practice in delivering learning in Wales. Learning programmes are assessed against a set of standards underpinned by good practice and current research in education and training.
What are the Benefits?
Quality Assurance and Organisational Development
The Quality Mark forms part of an organisation’s quality assurance, signifying that it takes the quality of its learning seriously and that improvement and development is central to its practice. The rigorous self-assessment and external validation inform organisational and learning development.
Flexibility
Flexibility is integral to the Agored Cymru Quality Mark with applications being made for many different types and structures of learning. These include face-to-face delivery whether a one-off events or a learning programme; e-learning; seminars; conferences; webinars and short update sessions.
Continuing Professional Development
Continuing professional development (CPD) is at the heart of the Quality Mark. Agored Cymru wants to ensure that learners and participants are getting the very best learning opportunities so that they can increase their knowledge and enhance their sector practice.
Communicates Excellence
Successful applicant organisations use the Agored Cymru Quality Mark to convey that their learning programme has met the highest educational standards. Organisations, employers, learners and participants know that the learning programme is well designed and that the external Quality Mark validation increases the confidence of all parties.
Which organisations can apply for the Quality Mark?
Any organisations can apply for the Quality Mark including Agored Cymru centres.
How does it work?
Organisations will be assigned a dedicated member of our team who will assess the proposed learning programme against the Quality Mark Standards. Once the programme has been validated, the Quality mark will be awarded for use for a specified period of time.
What is the difference between accredited learning and the Quality Mark?
- Only learning programmes that last ten hours or more, including the accreditation assessment, can be translated into credit. One credit equals ten hours of learning. Learning programmes that are shorter than this would be ideal to go forward for the Quality Mark.
- An organisation’s learning programme would need to be developed into a learning unit for it to be accredited whereas a learning programme, going ahead for the Quality Mark, would be assessed against a set of established standards.
- A quality marked learning programme would not need to be assessed for its learning complexity level. This would need to be undertaken when developing accredited units.
- There are no requirements for a quality marked course to generate learner assessment evidence unlike an accredited unit. This does not mean that learner outcomes are not important for a quality marked learning programme.
- Learners and participants may receive a certificate of attendance or CPD hours. This means that learners and participants on a quality marked course will not gain credits towards qualifications.
Apply for the Quality Mark
No two learning programmes are the same as the subjects, target audiences and the implementation can be different. This means that Agored Cymru recognises the individuality of learning programmes and our Quality Mark validation reflects this. Therefore, the costs for the Quality Mark will reflect this uniqueness and prices will be individualised for organisations.
Please get in touch on qualitymark@agored.cymru to discuss the quality mark.