Kaplan Financial approved to become a qualification awarding organisation

4 February 2010, London – Kaplan Financial, one of the UK’s leading providers of financial, business and legal training and education and part of The Washington Post Company, has received approval to become an awarding organisation by education regulators OfQual, DCELLS and CCEA (responsible for qualifications and assessment in England, Wales and Northern Ireland respectively).  

Kaplan Financial has set up an entirely independent division, Kaplan Professional Awards (KPA), to develop and award a range of vocational qualifications.  

Kaplan Professional Awards qualifications will become part of the Qualifications and Credit Framework (QCF), launched in 2008 to create and accredit qualifications in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.  

The QCF enables organisations to develop nationally recognised qualifications that are tailored to meet employers’ needs and allows learners to build qualifications up from units so they can control their own pace of learning by gaining qualifications flexibly over time.   

Peter Houillon, CEO of Kaplan Financial, said: “We are one of the first training providers to be recognised as a professional qualifications awarding organisation and we fully support the drive to make qualifications more relevant for employers.  This is an extremely important development for Kaplan Financial: to be recognised as an awarding organisation carries an endorsement of the high quality of our provision.

“Kaplan Financial has for decades developed bespoke training programmes for employers -- large and small – in the UK.  In the US and Australia, Kaplan is already a respected awarding organisation, offering qualifications at all levels.”

Kaplan Professional Awards will develop qualifications in conjunction with industry stakeholders to ensure they are relevant and meet employers’ needs.

About the Qualifications and Credit Framework

The QCF is the new framework for creating and accrediting qualifications in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. It’s at the heart of a major reform of the vocational qualifications system, which is changing to become more responsive to the specific demands of employers and learners. It allows learners to build qualifications up from units so they can control their own pace of learning by gaining qualifications flexibly over time.   

Employers are directly involved in designing QCF qualifications and units so learners know that they’re gaining skills that industries want.  Employers are already taking advantage of the flexibilities of the new qualifications system. Some have developed a completely new qualification based on their in-house training, while others have tailored an existing qualification to suit their business needs.

To watch an animation on how the QCF works, and for other information about the new framework, visit www.qcda.gov.uk/qcf.

About Kaplan Financial

Kaplan Financial provides training for professional qualifications and business programmes.  We train more than 40,000 business and government professionals and international students annually for investment qualifications (including CFA®), professional accountancy and tax exams, and bespoke programmes for corporates and government offices.

Kaplan Financial is part of Kaplan, Inc., a leading international provider of education services and a subsidiary of The Washington Post Company (NYSE: WPO). For more information, please visit www.kaplanfinancial.co.uk

For more information, please contact:
Elizabeth Hess, Kaplan Financial
Phone: + 44 20 7645 8968
Mobile: + 44 7815 143 065
elizabeth.hess@kaplan.com