Re: [Fsfe-uk] [Fwd: [Fsuk-manchester] Richard Stallman talk - Manchester (1st May)]

[Ian Lynch]

> But what I mean is, when I visit www.theINGOTs.org I can't learn what
> certificates the directors of the company have, or what grades they
> got in school.

Can you do this with AQA, Edexcel or the BCS sites? The quality stamp is
that we are a government accredited by QCA and endorsed by E-skills. We
have also got a long way down the road with SAQA the South African
Qualifications Authority and we are likely to get Romania on board. I
think that the fact I have a Masters in Education management is rather
taken for granted when national governments give their approval. 

> This suggests that certicates and grades are not very important.

The target market is schools and colleges. They are important to schools
for two key reasons. They provide points in the school league tables and
they motivate children. If we were a university conferring degrees that
might be different but the purpose of the INGOTs is to lower barriers to
entry to qualifications in line with QCA's foundation tier research. The
market for entry level qualifications is far bigger than for degrees in
computer science. Furthermore the investment in developing
qualifications at entry level is much lower too. And with the European
Qualifications Framework recently announced, new EU members from EE are
keen to get their kids qualified.

> It would be better for people to learn what the directors of companies
> know which do make people visit their companies' websites and turn
> into paying customers.

Do you mean directors of our company or companies in general? Company
Directors are not going to do courses in FOSS while running busy
comopanies. All company directors at one time went to school.

> But the school system as it is, means that yes, there is a need to
> sell a certification scheme to teachers in order to get the
> information across to students.

Fact is that in the UK if it is not certificated with government
accreditation you have zero chance of getting it into the curriculum. If
it was otherwise I would not have spent 2 years going through the
procedures to set up an Awarding Body. Of course once we have UK
government accreditation and some traction here it is far easier to get
into other countries.

Ian
-- 
New QCA Accredited IT Qualifications
www.theINGOTs.org

You have received this email from the following company: The Learning
Machine Limited, Reg Office, 36 Ashby Road, Tamworth, Staffordshire, B79
8AQ. Reg No: 05560797, Registered in England and Wales.