Awards quangos merge

The Government has given the go-ahead for the launch next year of an education and training quango to oversee the development of academic and vocational qualifications.

The Qualifications and National Curriculum Authority, to be established in September 1997, will replace the Schools Curriculum and Assessment Authority and the National Council for Vocational Qualifications.

SCAA is headed by Sir Ron Dearing, who first proposed the merger in his review of 16 to 19-year-old qualifications published earlier this year and has been responsible for GCSE and A-level qualifications since 1993. NCVQ, headed by Sir Michael Heron, has developed NVQs and GNVQs since 1986.

Gillian Shephard, Education and Employment Secretary, said: "The creation of a new, single body mirrors the successful merger of the department for education and the employment department." It will spearhead the drive to meet stringent national targets for training and education.

Mrs Shephard explained that QNCA will have more power than the older bodies since it "will be able to set expectations and standards across the whole spectrum of education and training - from the nursery to workplace learning and lifelong learning".

A key consultation document, Building the Framework, distributed during the summer, received a 75 per cent response in favour of merging SCAA and NCVQ.

Mrs Shephard has asked the two organisations to work closely over the next year to ensure "a smooth transitional period". But there is likely to be considerable rivalry as the two bodies battle for supremacy in the new quango. Training experts fear that SCAA's personnel and policies will dominate QNCA, so undermining vocational qualifications.