National qualifications frameworks in the United Kingdom

The national qualification frameworks in the United Kingdom are qualifications frameworks that define and link the levels and credit values of different qualifications.

The current frameworks are:

The Regulated Qualifications Framework (RQF) for general and vocational qualifications regulated by Ofqual in England and the Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment (CCEA) in Northern Ireland;

The Credit and Qualifications Framework for Wales (CQFW) in Wales, regulated by Qualifications Wales;

The Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF) in Scotland;

The Frameworks for Higher Education Qualifications of UK Degree-Awarding Bodies (FHEQ) for qualifications awarded by bodies across the United Kingdom with degree-awarding powers.

Credit frameworks use the Credit Accumulation and Transfer Scheme, where 1 credit = 10 hours of nominal learning.

England, Wales and Northern Ireland

The Regulated Qualifications Framework (England and Northern Ireland) is split into nine levels: entry level (further subdivided into sub-levels one to three) and levels one to eight; the CQFW (Wales) has the same nine levels as the RQF and has adopted the same level descriptors for regulated (non-degree) qualifications. The FHEQ in England, Wales and Northern Ireland has five levels, numbered four to eight to match the RQF/CQFW levels.

The descriptors for the RQF are as follows:

Normally (different rules apply for specifically-named qualifications such as GCSEs), the name of a qualification offered under the RQF will contain the name of the awarding organisation and the level of the qualification. It may also include "NVQ" to indicate that it meets certain criteria to be considered a vocational qualification: "the qualification is based on recognised occupational standards, confers occupational competence and requires work-based assessment and/or assessment in an environment that simulates the work place". The size of the qualification may be indicated by it being called an "Award" (less than 120 hours total qualification time/1–12 credits), "Certificate" (121 to 369 hours/13–36 credits) or "Diploma" (370 or more hours/37+ credits).

In general usage, qualifications are often compared to the best-known qualification at that level. For example, the Level 2 DiDA is often said to be equivalent to four GCSEs at grades A*–C.

While the frameworks say how qualifications compare in terms of size and level, they do not (except for the split of GCSEs across level 1 and 2) take grades into account, e.g.