Introduction to Access 3 Courses in Cantonese and Mandarin

2. Introduction to Access 3 Courses in Cantonese and Mandarin 25 April 2008Balmoral Hotel, Edinburgh

3. Access 3 Courses in Cantonese and Mandarin Jim McDonald Qualifications Manager NQ Languages Fan Lin NQ Development Officer

4. Access 3 Courses in Cantonese and Mandarin Aims of the event • To familiarise delegates with structure and delivery of Course Units • To explore approaches to assessment of Units

5. Access 3 Courses in Cantonese and Mandarin Structure of the event • Presentation • Workshop

6. Access 3 Courses in Cantonese and Mandarin Fan Lin National Qualifications Development Officer Chinese Languages

7. Introduction to Chinese Languages National Courses: Qualifications Framework Access 3 Courses in Cantonese and Mandarin

8. Access 3 Courses in Cantonese and Mandarin Overview of Course National Course (NC) in Access 3 consists of three Units: • Personal Language • Transactional Language • Language in Work

9. Access 3 Courses in Cantonese and Mandarin Overview of Course (cont.) • Each Unit lasts approximately 40 hours • The Course also contains a notional extra 40 hours, which includes time for assessment • Overall, Course delivered in approximately 160 hours

10. Access 3 Courses in Cantonese and Mandarin Overview of Course (cont.) • There is no externally assessed examination for NC Access 3 • The three Course Units combine to create a Course Award for candidates • Units can be done individually, and certificated

11. Access 3 Courses in Cantonese and Mandarin Approaches to Assessment • Each Unit has a range of Outcomes, which indicate the skills to be assessed • For each Unit there are a maximum of three Outcomes

12. Access 3 Courses in Cantonese and Mandarin Approaches to Assessment (cont.) • Within the Outcomes, the Performance Criteria give precise detail of what must be covered • The Outcomes also detail the Evidence Requirements for each assessment area

13. Access 3 Courses in Cantonese and Mandarin Approaches to Assessment (cont.) Skills assessed across the Outcomes: • Speaking • Reading • Listening • Writing does not have to be assessed but can be part of learning and teaching activities

14. Access 3 Courses in Cantonese and Mandarin Approaches to Assessment (cont.) • Each Unit assesses the range of skills • The skills (Speaking, Reading, Listening) can be assessed: — separately — or in a combined assessment

15. Access 3 Courses in Cantonese and Mandarin Assessment Support • A Unit Specification is available for each Unit. This Specification is generic across all languages • Unit Specifications can be downloaded by SQA Co-ordinators from the secure area of SQA’s website • The Unit Specifications form the Arrangements document for the Access 3 Course • The Arrangements for Access 3 Courses can be downloaded at www.sqa.org.uk

16. Access 3 Courses in Cantonese and Mandarin Assessment Support (cont.) • The Unit Specification includes exemplification of approaches to assessment • This includes assessment approaches for Chinese languages

17. Access 3 Courses in Cantonese and Mandarin Approval • All candidates for NQ Courses (including Access 3) must be entered by an SQA Approved Centre • Centres wishing to seek Approval should contact SQA Customer Contact Centre at customer@sqa.org.uk

18. Workshop Activities • Activity 1 —Familiarisationwith Units • Activity 2 — Assessment Approaches

19. For more information visit www.sqa.org.uk

20. Contact Fan Lin 林凡 fan.lin@sqa.org.uk