Ofqual Regulated Certificate Examples

We have had plenty of interest in our TIME Consumer Awareness Campaign (click here for more details) since its launch at the Houses of Parliament on the 26th January 2023. One of the most frequently asked questions since then is how the consumer can identify if a qualification really is what it says it is on the certificate? This is obviously a very grey area given the lack of regulation governing our sector and the standardisation of training currently.

What we can say though is that any Ofqual regulated qualification issued by an Awarding Organisation (AO) is government regulated and mapped to the National Occupational Standard (NOS) - so provided it is used to perform the modality taught, learners who achieved the qualification can have confidence that they have acquired the necessary, skills competencies. This is the reason why BABTAC (who self regulate our members) accept AO's qualifications for insurance purposes. 

The certificates are easy to identify as they have an Ofqual logo and Awarding Organisations (AO) name on them.

Below are EXAMPLE certificates from three Awarding Organisations (AOs)  - CIBTAC (BABTAC's own Awarding Arm), City & Guild & Qualifi - to help identify what some Ofqual regulated certificates may look like.  Please note these are not the only AOs.

For Ofqual compliance purposes all certificates must provide the AO Logo, The Ofqual Logo and all should have additional security features such as a watermark or a holographic stamp.  Click here to download a full infographic to demonstrate this on our CIBTAC Certificate Example. Checking these carefully is important as there are cases of fraudulent use of AO's logo's. If you are unsure about the validity of a certificate from an Awarding Body you should check directly with the body itself as they will be able to check the validity of any of their own certificates as they are registered.