Best Practice
Maintaining public confidence in Ireland’s education and training system is vital to QQI’s mission. We achieve this by adopting the highest standards of professionalism which gives us the authority to successfully assure quality in the services we oversee.
Part of this involves adopting best practice in governance. The Code of Practice for the Governance of State Bodies sets out a framework which the Irish government has put in place for bodies such as QQI. The
code was revised in August 2016.
The governance of QQI operates under two strands: corporate and academic.
Corporate
We are governed by a board of ten members including the Chief Executive. The board is appointed by the Minister for Education and Skills who also appoints the Chief Executive following a recommendation by the board.
Accountability and responsiveness are to the fore in our corporate values. We have an
Audit Committee to oversee our activities and a
Consultative Forum made up of stakeholder representatives.
Academic
Sub-board committee structures for QQI have been developed and as a result, the following committees are being introduced on a phased basis.
Each committee makes decisions, observations and recommendations relating to their remit. We have a formal appeals procedure for parties affected by the committee decisions.
It is important to note that committees are constituted by experts rather than representatives.
Internal Quality Assurance
QQI has developed a policy for its internal quality assurance. The policy provides a description of the internal quality assurance approach in QQI to those functions concerned with external quality assurance of providers of education and training. The policy serves as the primary reference for the implementation, maintenance, monitoring and review of IQA and can be used for training and audit purposes. Click this link to view.
Code of Conduct
Under the code of Practice for the Governance of State Bodies, each state body is required to have a Code of Conduct for its Board and employees.
QQI Code of Conduct
