Under the Qualifications and Quality Assurance (Education and Training) Act 2012, QQI is required to develop and publish guidelines for providers for the quality assurance (QA) of their programmes and services. QQI has created an interactive website that outlines the structure of these statutory quality assurance guidelines. Click on the image below to visit the QA Guidelines website.
All guidelines published are statutory guidelines and should be read in conjunction with QQI's Policy on Quality Assurance Guidelines. Given the variety of providers operating in Ireland it is necessary for us to produce a range of different types of QA guidelines.The Core QA Guidelines outlines the elements which are fundamental and common to all providers associated with QQI. Sector and Topic-specific QA guidelines are supplemental guidelines on specific areas beyond the core and may or may not apply to individual providers.
Stakeholder Consultation
An integral part of the development process of QQI’s QA guidelines is our consultation with stakeholders. More details about our consultation processes can be found here. The original feedback responses, where the authors have given permission for QQI to publish, are available here. We published our response to submissions and feedback received at direct consultation events in the report Quality Assurance Feedback.
Impact on Providers
Providers are primarily responsible for quality assuring their own programmes. In doing so, providers are required by legislation to "have regard to QQI guidelines" in developing their own procedures for quality assurance.
In some instances for example programme validation, providers’ QA procedures must be approved by us as being fit-for-purpose. A provider's scale and scope of activity will determine the level of complexity of its QA procedures.
