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Meaningful employer involvement (MEI)

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Which Cambridge Technicals qualifications require Meaningful Employer Involvement?

Qualifications submitted to the Department for Education (DfE) as Tech Levels or Technical Certificates require your students to complete meaningful activity involving employers during their study; and this must be quality assured by us.

See the tables below for details of Cambridge Technicals 2016 qualifications requiring Meaningful Employer Involvement (MEI).

The Cambridge Technicals 2016 suite also contains Applied general qualifications which do not require MEI.

Business

Entry code QN Level Qualification DfE category
05892 603/3279/7 2 Diploma in Business Administration Technical Certificate

Digital Media

Entry code QN Level Qualification DfE category
05898 603/3086/7 2
Certificate in Digital Media Technical Certificate
05899 603/3087/9 2
Diploma in Digital Media Technical Certificate
05845 601/7260/5 3 Foundation Diploma in Digital Media Tech Level
05846 601/7261/7 3 Diploma in Digital Media Tech Level
05875 603/0318/9 3 Extended Diploma in Digital Media Tech Level

Engineering

Entry code QN Level Qualification DfE category
05887 603/0422/4 2 Certificate in Engineering Technical Certificate
05888 603/0423/6 2 Diploma in Engineering Technical Certificate
05824 601/4600/X 3 Foundation Diploma in Engineering Tech Level
05825 601/4599/7 3 Diploma in Engineering Tech Level
05873 603/0322/0 3 Extended Diploma in Engineering Tech Level

Health and Social Care

Entry code QN Level Qualification DfE category
05880 603/0386/4 2 Certificate in Health and Social Care Technical Certificate
05881 603/0388/8 2 Diploma in Health and Social Care Technical Certificate

IT

Entry code QN Level Qualification DfE category
05883 603/0371/2 2 Certificate in IT Technical Certificate
05884 603/0373/6 2 Diploma in IT Technical Certificate
05840 601/7099/2 3 Introductory Diploma IT Tech Level
05841 601/7100/5 3 Foundation Diploma in IT Tech Level
05842 601/7101/7 3 Diploma in IT Tech Level
05877 603/0309/8 3 Extended Diploma in IT Tech Level

Sport and Physical Activity

Entry code QN Level Qualification DfE category
05885 603/0520/4 2 Certificate in Sport and Physical Activity Technical Certificate
05886 603/0521/6 2 Diploma in Sport and Physical Activity Technical Certificate
05828 601/7095/5 3 Foundation Diploma in Sport and Physical Activity Tech Level
05829 601/7096/7 3 Diploma in Sport and Physical Activity Tech Level
05872 603/0405/4 3 Extended Diploma in Sport and Physical Activity Tech Level

What is Meaningful Employer Involvement?

The DfE requires all awarding organisations ‘to confirm that providers have secured employer involvement for every learner’ taking a Tech Level qualification or a Technical Certificate qualification that has been approved for the performance tables: technical and vocational qualifications.

The employer involvement does not contribute to the overall qualification grading, but is a requirement that all learners must meet.

All students aged 16–19 working towards one of these qualifications must undertake ‘meaningful activity’ involving employers from a list of eligible activities, examples include:

  • Structured work-experience or work-placements that develop skills and knowledge relevant to the qualification
  • Project(s), exercises(s) and/or assessments/examination(s) set with input from industry practitioner(s)
  • Units delivered or co-delivered by an industry practitioner(s). This could take the form of master classes or guest lectures
  • Industry practitioners operate as ‘expert witnesses’ that contribute to the assessment of a learner’s work or practice, operating within a specified assessment framework. This may be a specific project(s), exercise(s) or examination(s), or all assessments for a qualification.

Whilst the DfE has allowed for flexibility in the way that providers and employers work together to support students’ learning, the contribution that meaningful activities make to the qualification must be significant and relate to the qualification as a minimum.

Activities and their contribution to the students’ learning are set out in the units and handbooks. As a minimum they relate to one or more elements of the mandatory content of the qualification.

Information taken from DfE Technical Guidance 2017.

What this means for your students

Your students should be provided with the opportunity to really get to experience what their chosen career will be like. The involvement of practising professionals and real industry environments will allow your students to understand the knowledge and skills involved – not just in theory - but in practice too.

What this means for you

You should select the best blend of activities to meet the unit learning outcomes, your student’s needs, and your local employer environment.

You can tailor MEI to enable your students to really engage with the world of work, and which can be practically delivered in your local area. There are no requirements to use certain types of MEI or combinations of activities if they are not practical in your local area.

What will you need to do?

Your Visiting Moderator will ask to see your Meaningful Employer Involvement - Centre Plan, which can be downloaded on each of the qualification pages. This plan covers:

  • The qualification
  • The unit
  • What do you plan to do?
  • When do you plan to do it?
  • The date you completed it (if applicable)
  • Any comments.

What this means for us:

MEI will be quality assured by your OCR Visiting Moderator.

Further information:

  • Qualification centre handbook: Section 5 provides more detail on MEI, the minimum requirements and the centre plan.
  • DfE Technical Guidance
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