Awarding bodies responsible for validation have certain responsibilities. These are specified by the Act on the Integrated Qualifications System (IQS).
Each awarding body (AB) shall:
On quarterly basis, each awarding body shall pay a fee amounting to 3% of its income from validation and certification fees. The minimum fee amount shall be PLN 1 from each issued document confirming the awarding of a market qualification.
Once the relevant minister has granted authorisation and appointed an external quality assurance entity (EQAE), the awarding body (AB) has the right to perform validation.
The act does not specify the frequency with which the AB is expected to perform validation – this decision is left to the AB. Additionally, there is no set time-frame within which the AB must start performing validation.
Validation fees
Validation is a fee-based service. Awarding bodies set the amount of fees payable for validation of a given qualification and collect all fees from persons who want to undergo validation.
The fee amount depends on:
Validation fees may vary from one awarding body to another, even if they validate the same market qualification.
Each awarding body shall publish information on validation costs on its website.
An awarding body (AB) is not required to provide all the resources referred to in the description of the organisational conditions needed for validation – e.g. equipment or its own premises. What is more, it is not required to employ personnel – such as assessors, advisers or validation designers – on a permanent basis.
What an awarding body must do is ensure the conditions for validation identified in the qualification description – regardless of its organisational structure or the principles of its cooperation with other entities.
Cooperation between an awarding body and validating bodies
In practice, it is often the case that awarding bodies cooperate with other entities responsible for validation (validating bodies) – for example when:
The interested parties determine the rules of cooperation between an awarding body and validating bodies – in a contract or an agreement. The IQS Act does not impose any specific requirements in this respect.
DThe awarding body is always responsible for:
An awarding body (AB) must employ assessors who meet the requirements specified in the qualification description. Typically, the qualification description will also include the requirements on the number of assessors who should participate in the validation process or sit on the committee.
In the event an awarding body intends to provide the support of a validation counsellorduring the course of the validation process, it shall employ such an adviser and ensure that he/she had been properly prepared for this role.
Validation assessors are experts, who ensure that the candidate has the knowledge and the skills required for a given qualification. An assessor verifies the learning outcomes of individuals undergoing validation.
Apart from the specific requirements relating to a given qualification, the awarding body should prepare the assessors for the validation process in a way that ensures the appropriate quality of the process. Therefore, they must know the work standards and procedures applicable in a given awarding body and act accordingly.
A validation assessor should:
Validation counsellors are experts providing support at each stage of the validation process to individuals applying for a certificate.
An important aspect of the role of a validation counsellor is to support a candidate at the stage of identifying learning outcomes. A counsellor supports the candidate in determining what the candidate already knows and can do and what he/she still has to learn in order to obtain the certificate.
In the event the analysis of evidence and statements is used in the course of the validation process, an advisor can help the candidate collect relevant documents (at the stage of documenting the learning outcomes, i.e. preparing the evidence and statements to be assessed by the assessors in the assessment stage).
A validation counsellor should:
A validation counsellor meeting the above-mentioned requirements is capable of effectively supporting candidates who have decided to undergo validation. If additionally prepared, an adviser may also be able to fulfil the responsibilities of a validation assessor.
Quality assurance is a priority for the Integrated Qualifications System (IQS). This way, both employees and employers are confident that the certificates confirming given qualifications are credible and valuable.
The high quality of awarded qualifications is important for:
Relevant ministers supervise the validation and certification of regulated and market qualifications included in the IQS.
Every 2 years, each awarding body (AB) submits a report on its validation and certification activitiesto the relevant minister.
The system also includes the services of external quality assurance entities (EQAE). These entities cooperate with ABs as well as the minister. Their task is to analyse how ABs ensure the quality of awarding qualifications (i.e. the quality of the validation process). Every 3 years, each EQAE submits a report on their work to the relevant ministers.
The ministers may decide to have an AB as well as an EQAE audited. They have the right to apply sanctions – for example to:
Internal and external quality assurance systems
In each body, both validation and certification processes are subject to an internal as well as an external quality assurance system.
The internal quality assurance system is designed by the awarding body. The system monitorsthe rules of conduct, procedures, methods and organisational solutions.
Its objective is to ensure the proper course of validation and certification as well as to improve both processes as performed by the awarding body. This is achieved by:
An external quality assurance entity (EQAE) supervises an awarding body (AB) by fulfilling theexternal quality assurance role.
This is achieved by:
EQAE functions are assigned to the appointed entity by the relevant minister for a given qualification.
An external quality assurance entity (EQAE) evaluates the quality of validation as performed by the awarding body (AB).
External quality assurance entities are institutions which have been authorised to fulfil such a function by the relevant minister.
An EQAE supports an AB in validation and certification processes.
An EQAE is responsible for:
An external quality assurance entity (EQAE), among other things, shall have the right to:
The EQAE must inform the relevant minister immediately if it suspects that the AB does not follow the applicable rules and does not meet the requirements specified in the qualification description.
The relevant minister supervising the qualification should initiate the process of cooperation among all parties involved in a given qualification.
This can be done by holding a meeting of the representatives of the ministry, the AB and the EQAE. Such a meeting provides an opportunity to initiatecooperation in the spirit of partnership among the parties.
At this point, 22 entities assigned to selected groups of qualifications have been authorised as external quality assurance entities (EQAE).
Recruitment of EQAE takes place at least every 3 years and is announced by the Minister of National Education. The announcement is published on theIQS website.
In practice, the minister announces recruitment when there is a need to do so. For example, in the event a qualification is being included in the system in a field for which there:
The table below presents the EQAEs assigned to particular groups of qualifications.
By subscribing to our newsletter, you consent to share your personal data with the Educational Research Institute