Linking with Agencies
QQI works with other State agencies and bodies that regulate or represent professions. This ensures our work is well-informed and responsive to stakeholders' needs.
To facilitate engagement, we have produced,
QQI Relations with Professional Bodies: A Background Paper.
An overview of QQI's services can be found here.
Professional / Regulatory Bodies
Consultation is crucial to fulfilling our function as part of a system developing and implementing policies with a social, commercial and educational aim.
We currently observe a consultation framework and are developing policy to underpin this cooperation. See our
Policy Development page for more details.
Professional / regulatory bodies play a key role in this work. Professions involve communities of practice that are critical to the functioning of the qualifications system.
The input is also essential in areas such as educational quality assurance and the determination and formulation of standards for qualifications. For more see:
Qualifications Systems and Related Concepts - a QQI Background Paper.
It important therefore that QQI engages in knowledge sharing with a range of organisations as part of our policy-development process.
These organisations are often connected and typically interact with:
The international scientific and technical community in the discipline concerned
Providers of programmes of education and training (note: some professional bodies are providers in their right)
Professional practitioners
Professional regulators
Employers
State Bodies
With so many stakeholders involved in education and training, joined-up thinking and coordinated action is essential. Therefore we have regular interactions with relevant State bodies and are developing protocols to deepen these links.
Department of Education and Skills
QQI is answerable to the
Department of Education and Skills which funds some of our running costs. We work with the department in areas such as:
Oireachtas Éireann – Parliament of Ireland
QQI was established by an act of the
Oireachtas which is amended from time to time. QQI may have input into such changes through the Department of Education and Skills. Our senior managers also appear before Oireachtas committees in response to a request or because we have made submissions.
Solas – Further Education and Training Authority
Solas is the national agency responsible for funding, planning and co-ordinating training and further education programmes in Ireland. Solas and QQI have developed and signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that sets out how we will cooperate going forward.
Higher Education Authority (HEA)
The
Higher Education Authority is the statutory planning and policy development body for higher education and research in Ireland. It is also the funding body for higher education. It is also the funding body for higher education. The HEA publishes extensive statistics on higher education and is the national contact point for Erasmus+ and other European funding programmes for higher education.
In July 2018, a new Memorandum of Understanding between the HEA and QQI came into operation. The Memorandum provides an agreed framework for cooperation and communication between the two organisations in the interests of the higher education sector as a whole. The MoU, which is being implemented over the period 2018 – 2020, sets out a range of actions. These actions support the four key commitments presented in the document: coherence of approach, alignment of activities, Ireland in an international context, and partnerships for enhancement. The MoU is available here.
An implementation forum, established under the previous MoU, brings together the HEA and QQI with the Department of Education and Skills, IOTI, IUA and USI will continue under the new MOU. The primary objective of the Forum is to assist and advise the HEA and QQI on the implementation of the MoU. The Forum will look at a number of relevant themes over the duration of the MoU and will also periodically consider the implementation of the MoU as a whole.
National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA)
NCCA’s role is to advise the Minister for Education and Skills on curriculum and assessment from early childhood through to second-level education. The Council also provides support to learners, teachers and other stakeholder - including the conduct of related research. We work with NCCA particularly on the implementation of the National Framework of Qualifications in the school system.
Léargas
Léargas is a not-for-profit organisation that manages European, national and international exchange and cooperation programmes in education, training, and youth and community work – including
Erasmus+ – outside of higher education. It is the national contact point for the European Credit System for Vocational Education and Training (Ecvet).
National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning
The National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning (the National Forum) is responsible for transforming teaching and learning in higher education and is the national advisory body on teaching and learning to the HEA. The National Forum works in partnership with Irish higher education through its representative bodies and the wider student, academic and professional services communities, to enhance teaching and learning for real impact on the learning experiences and outcomes of students.
Through a new Memorandum of Understanding, QQI and the National Forum agree to work towards establishing a strategic alliance to enhance external quality assurance in teaching and learning and to improve the quality of the higher education system in Ireland. Future collaboration will focus on information sharing, Recognition of Prior Learning, professional bodies, and impact and enhancement.
