What’s The Difference Between Awarding Bodies?
If you are embarking on your journey to becoming an Assessor you may have noticed that there are lots of different awarding bodies. First, let’s have a look at what awarding bodies do before we go into detail about the ones we choose to work with.
What Is An Awarding Body?
Awarding bodies are also sometimes referred to as awarding organisations or exam boards, but they all mean the same thing. They are all terms used to describe an organisation that designs, develops, delivers and awards the recognition of learning outcomes. These outcomes can include knowledge, skills and competencies and are measured following an assessment and quality assurance process.
Awarding bodies are experts at developing qualifications that meet the needs of both employers and the learners undertaking them. They are strictly regulated and ensure that the resources and qualifications they approve are of the highest standards. Standardisation is also a big part of the role of an awarding body, as they are responsible for ensuring learners receive the same level of assessment at all times.
Types Of Awarding Body
As you can imagine, there are lots of different awarding bodies. But when you get down to basics, there is not much difference between them all. At the end of the day, the course content, qualification and support given are the same; no matter which awarding body you go with. The only real difference is the name that you will see on the certificate at the end!
Enter Ofqual.
The Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation is a government body whose job it is to ensure all the qualifications under their remit are delivered to the same standard. Their job is basically to make sure all awarding bodies toe the line.
The Illusion of Choice
Under Ofqual‘s watchful eye, all awarding bodies meet the same standards. The core criteria that each awarding body must follow make them more alike than different. Often the only difference in awarding bodies is the amount they charge training providers to register learners. Usually, the better-known ones charge more for this and inversely appear to provide a worse level of service. That being said there are many great awarding bodies out there for you to choose from big and small.
Conclusion
In short, all awarding bodies are pretty much the same. The quality of your course should be consistent no matter which awarding body you choose. The final choice is down to your preference. More important is your choice of training provider not whose name is on their certificates.
We hope this has helped to explain the difference between the awarding bodies. If you have any further questions, please feel free to give our team a call on 01205 805155.
