How 'CASLO' qualifications work
This report describes how a group of mainly vocational and technical qualifications work.
Applies to England
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Many of the vocational and technical qualifications that Ofqual regulates have the following three characteristics in common:
- unit content is specified in terms of discrete learning outcomes
- the unit standard is specified in terms of assessment criteria for each learning outcome
- a learner will only be judged to have passed the unit if they demonstrate that they have acquired all specified learning outcomes (known as ‘mastery’)
We refer to them as CASLO qualifications because they require assessors to Confirm the Acquisition of Specified Learning Outcomes. Apart from these three defining characteristics, CASLO qualifications take many different forms.
In comparison with General Qualifications, including GCSEs and A levels, CASLO qualifications are documented less comprehensively, researched less thoroughly, and theorised less well. Although individual assessment organisations (AOs) may know how their qualifications work, knowledge of this sort is not easy to access. Where information has been made available – in qualification specifications, handbooks, and suchlike – this has tended to be at a very practical level. The principles underpinning the effective operation of CASLO qualifications, especially in relation to quality assurance, appear never to have been articulated.
The research described in this report was intended to fill this gap. The report identifies several principles that appear to underpin the effective operation of CASLO qualifications. These principles help to explain how it is possible for an awarding organisation to remain fully accountable for each CASLO qualification that it awards despite devolving substantial responsibility for assessment processes to centres.