What is the purpose of this qualification?
The purpose of this qualification is to develop learners’ IT skills and underpinning knowledge to enable progression to further learning but which can also be applied at work, and as part of their daily lives.
This qualification can be tailored to the needs of individual learners as they can achieve a proportion of the learning at a higher level than that of the qualification and can pursue those areas of IT learning most relevant to them.
The qualification is designed for the following learner groups:
• Those in education to ensure they are equipped with the appropriate skills to support their broader personal or career development.
• Those preparing for employment or in employment to gain a level of skills application and development to enable practical exploitation of the potential of IT within the business environment
• Those preparing for or in employment to develop skills for specific systems and software applications within industry and/or specifically for job roles in the IT sector.
What skills, knowledge, or understanding does this qualification develop?
This qualification requires learners to complete a mandatory unit in Improving Productivity Using IT . They then select additional units from a choice of optional units that include different types of software and core IT functions for example word processing software,audio, design, database, imaging, multimedia and specialist software and IT system performance. This flexibility enables providers to build programmes that suit the needs of individual learners.
How is this qualification different from other, similar qualifications?
The Level 1 Diploma in IT User Skills (ITQ) is most suitable for learners who require a programme of learning that supports the development of broader knowledge, understanding and skills in IT that can be applied in learning or employment of for those who require a considerable period of time to develop specific / specialist aspect IT skills that can be applied in an existing or future job roles, eg an Apprentice Web Developer, Business Adminstration Apprentice, office administrator.
How will this qualification support the learner’s independence?
This qualification provides formal recognition of a learner’s IT Skills that can be applied in current or future employment in varying roles that require a considerable amount of time applying general IT skills in day-to-day work or for those who require specialist IT skills.
Progression & entry requirements
It is likely that learners at this level will have no prior experience, but may have Entry level 3 experience/skills.
The approved age range for these qualifications is: pre 16; 16-18 and 19+.
Learners can progress in to further learning for example to an ITQ qualification at level 2 or above.
