New Standard for ADR
The ADR qualification for drivers of dangerous
goods on the road will now be administered by the Scottish Qualifications
Authority (SQA) after many years with City & Guilds.
Tom
Drake, SQA interim chief executive, said: “SQA are
delighted to have the opportunity to be involved with this important
qualification.”
SQA is responsible for the development,
accreditation, assessment and certification of qualifications
other than degrees in Scotland.
As well as school and college exams, SQA is the major awarding
body for Scottish Vocational Qualifications (SVQs) and other
vocational qualifications.
The testing services section of SQA
already provides commercial testing and certification, licensing
and endorsement services
for a wide range of clients and qualifications, including the
Department of Transport Dangerous Goods Branch through the Safety
Advisor Qualification and Driver Training Schemes.
Ed Pargetor,
chairman of the National Dangerous Goods Training Consortium
(NDGTC), said: “The NDGTC, who are a non-profit
making organisation and represent almost half of the training
providers for ADR, would like to thank SQA for their cooperation
and hard work in getting the change over from City and Guilds
done as smoothly as possible.”
SQA says it decided early
on that it could add value to the administration process.
"We realised it was important to understand
the strengths as well as the weaknesses of the existing system,” said
Gary Quinn, SQA’s testing services manager. “It was
always clear we couldn’t just come in and change things
for change’s
sake.”
SQA plans to move to online examinations from
October 2007, but has retained the existing verification team.
SQA
says it has made a significant investment in e-enabling the administration
processes for approval, verification, invigilation,
submission of training course, exams and candidate data. All
stakeholders can access the web-enabled database, which it says
will cut down on paperwork and bureaucracy, and includes candidate
information and exam results.
Les Richings of LRT Ltd said: “The
SQA online administration system is of great benefit to my organisation
in reducing the
notification period needed to deliver training. This allows greater
flexibility in providing courses and I look forward to working
with SQA in the future.”
The database also allows SQA’s
verification team to access training provider data, allowing
verifiers to manage their own
verification and invigilation schedules, record verification
and invigilation reports online, and approve decisions online.
SQA
plans to review the existing training programme and examination
structure and will redouble its consultation programme to identify,
prioritise and tackle remaining problems with the existing scheme.
Its ambition then will be to introduce a full online examinations
system in October 2007.
Henry Laferla of K Training said: “The
main implication is that the examination fees for drivers needing
ADR to carry
gas in cylinders will increase from £27 to £60 per
driver.”
Contact SQA on 08452 135266
www.sqa.org.uk
Return to December/January
2007 News
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