Andrew Smith, our director of Regulation, explains how we are using data and intelligence
In September 2021, following a successful nine-month pilot, our new Education Quality Assurance (QA) Model launched.
Two of the key features of our new education QA model are:
- using data to inform risk-based decision-making
- working more collaboratively with education providers throughout the QA process.
This very much aligns to the priorities in our five-year Corporate Strategy.
Improving our use of data
We have begun to actively learn from data and research, using it to make informed decisions and, of course, share our insights to help providers. For example, insights from recent graduates are essential to understanding how their education and training prepared them for practice. To gather these insights, we launched a graduate survey, the results of which are now being analysed. Our findings will be shared with education providers and others, to add value where we can.
We’re using more data than ever before in our Education performance review process, which now draws together internal and external datasets to form sophisticated risk assessment and help us prioritise what’s important. We also ask providers to reflect upon data points as part of our performance review process. As a result, data is now playing an increasing role in our decision making.
Adopting a regional approach
It’s not just about data. People, relationships and improving our understanding of education providers are equally as important in our new QA model.
Therefore, we’ve also adopted a regional approach to quality assurance, and we’re finding that this is already adding value.
Early discussions with our key stakeholders in education providers have helped shape our plans, allowing us to develop our understanding of what is important to our stakeholders. Our approach is to make sure we fully understand situations before taking regulatory action.
We are continuing our work with professional bodies, establishing good relationships and data sharing arrangements wherever we can. This will enable us to understand each other's priorities, not only across the education sector but also for specific quality assurance activities.
We are significantly more connected to our own data and to other organisations’ priorities and outcomes. As our relationships, data, and insights continue to grow and develop, we move closer to achieving our strategic goals set out in our Corporate Strategy.