Notice of intention to deactivate unused and little used CAS awards

QQI is responsible for ensuring that all awards standards for further education and training are fit for purpose and relevant.

We have completed the annual analysis of the levels of certification for each Common Awards System (CAS) award to identify those that are long established and yet are either unused or little used. This is required to ensure the integrity of the CAS and the National Framework of Qualifications. The criteria for deactivation are as follows:

• All classes of CAS awards developed prior to 2016 that have never been certified.

• All classes of CAS awards developed prior to 2016 that have been certified fewer than 20 times in the 5 years prior to 2021.

The list of awards we propose to deactivate can be downloaded below.

How will this be done?

Providers and other stakeholders will have until Friday 13 January 2023 to let us know if the withdrawal of any of the awards presents a problem that we need to consider.

On 3 February 2023 QQI will confirm the list of the awards for deactivation.

On 24 February 2023 QQI will deactivate the listed awards having regard to the interests of any learners already enrolled on validated programmes

Award deactivation will happen in an orderly way with the intention of causing minimum disruption to providers and learners.

Does the deactivation of some of the listed awards present a problem for you as a provider?

If so please...

• Raise a query on QHelp/Research and Standards advising us of the problem.

• Provide relevant information that you consider warrants the retention of the award(s)

We will consider all such requests before making a final decision.

Other options instead of retention

Just because an award is deactivated does not mean that QQI will no longer be willing to certify learning in the subject concerned. A provider who is interested in designing a programme to cover such a subject can apply for validation of a programme leading to a new QQI award under the new validation policy against the generic or broad QQI awards standards.