What are standards?

To pass your Key Skills course, you need to meet certain criteria. By this, we mean that there's a whole list of different things related to the subject you're studying that you need to show that you can do.

The Qualifications and Curriculums Authority (QCA) decide what these criteria are and put them into lists for each subject, at each level. This is known as the set of Standards for your course.

In this section, you'll find out how to read and understand the standards for your course. In our examples, we've used ICT Level 2, as this is a widely used Key Skill in schools and colleges.

The standards for all levels of all Key Skills subjects follow exactly the same layout and design. All you need to do is to follow the advice we give over the next few pages, and you should develop quite a good understanding of the standards that are relevant to your own course.

You can find a full list of standards at the QCA Key Skills Standards 2004 website.

Have a look now and see if you can download and print off the set of standards that are relevant to you.

The standards that we've been using over the last few years have now changed. This means that, if you started your course from September this year, you will be using the new standards. However, if you were in the middle of a course, you will have been allowed to continue using the old standards.

You will need to familiarise yourself with your Key Skills standards. These are your 'bible' and you must follow the criteria. Good planning before you start any tasks can save you a great deal of time later on.

In our examples, we'll be using the 2004 standards.

Go to the next screen to find out how your standards are set out.