Digital Technology: Qualification Development

In December 2018, we published Delivering Digital, our review of qualifications and the qualification system in the information and communication technology sector.

The review set out a series of short- and longer-term actions intended to address the issues it identified. These included inviting awarding bodies to develop two new qualifications in Digital Technology, a GCSE and a GCE AS/A level, to be available for first teaching in September 2021 and September 2022 respectively.

The table below shows details of the key actions and milestones in our work to develop approval criteria for these qualifications and support their implementation. For further information regarding any of the milestones please click its associated link.

Milestone	Description	Date	Link
Publication of Delivering Digital	The publication of our review of qualifications and the qualifications system in the ICT sector.	December 2018	Link
Development days for GCSE and GCE AS/A level Digital Technology	In March 2019, we held a series of Development days at venues across Wales for teachers and further education lecturers to share their ideas for the new qualifications.	March 2019	Link
Development of GCSE Digital Technology Approval Criteria	In October 2019, we published draft approval criteria for GCSE Digital Technology and invited stakeholders to take part in a feedback survey.	October 2019	Link
GCSE Digital Technology Approval Criteria Published	Following our survey, a number of changes were made to the approval criteria document in response to the feedback. The finalised approval criteria were published in May 2020 alongside a narrative document explaining how they were developed.	May 2020	Link
GCSE Digital Technology Specification published by WJEC	In response to our approval criteria, WJEC developed a specification for GCSE Digital Technology. Following its approval by Qualifications Wales this document was published on WJEC’s website, with the qualification being first taught in September 2021.	September 2020	Link
Survey on practical tasks in GCE AS/A level Digital Technology	As part of our development work for the AS/A level Digital Technology we invited stakeholders to participate in a survey to gather their views on the practical tasks that should be available to learners undertaking the qualification.	June/July 2020	Link
Development of GCE AS/A level Digital Technology Approval Criteria	In October 2020, we held two webinars which each included a summary of our proposals for GCE AS/A level Digital Technology and a question and answer session. We also ran a feedback survey which invited stakeholders to share their views on our proposals.	October 2020	Link
AS/A level Digital Technology Approval Criteria Published	In response to the feedback received through our stakeholder engagement activities we refined the approval criteria document for these qualifications. These criteria were published in May 2021 alongside an outline of our approach to their development.	May 2021	Link
AS/A level Digital Technology Specification published by WJEC	In response to our approval criteria, WJEC developed a specification for AS/A level Digital Technology. Following its approval by Qualifications Wales this document was published on WJEC’s website, with the qualification being first taught in September 2022.	September 2021	Link