City and Guilds of London Institute - Vocational Qualifications

Vocational Qualifications

Nowadays City & Guilds continues as an examination board offering a large number of qualifications mapped onto the British National Qualifications Framework (NQF). The most common are the vocational qualifications, from Entry-level to Level 3.

• Entry-level qualifications are the real basics, for absolute beginners.
• Level 1 qualifications are introductory awards, covering basic tasks and knowledge.
• Level 2 is slightly more advanced, needing some knowledge of the subject area.
• Level 3 qualifications cover more complex tasks and also start the development of supervisory skills. In many professions, level 3 is the benchmark to be considered competent.

These qualifications are now mapped onto the new Qualifications and Credit Framework (QCF).

The range of vocational qualifications cover the 'traditional' areas such as engineering technician, arts and craft, tradesman, health and social care, hairdressing, automotive maintenance, construction, and catering, but also the more obscure such as sheep shearing, DJing, flower arranging and even door supervision (bouncer).