What is Qualified Music Educator?

Qualified Music Educator (QME) is a new qualification developed by Arts Council England, Creative & Cultural Skills and the music education sector. QME will be a vocational, flexible and unitised qualification that can be delivered by a range of providers including further education colleges and music organisations.

The principles of QME are:

  • to support inspiring and motivational learning that can progress the skills of children and young people
  • to be relevant to all musicians, regardless of musical genres and sub-genres and stage in career
  • to be based on existing qualifications wherever possible, made up of small units that can be delivered in a flexible way

QME will include a range of units that support skills development in areas specific to musicians such as 1:1 tuition, small group teaching, whole class/ensemble teaching, improvisational skills, technology in music and diversity in practice.

What it is not

QME is not teacher training - we understand that some musicians might want to progress on to teacher training (PGCE) and QME should give them a good starting knowledge of working in the area they could develop as a career.

It is not designed to replace formal training as a musician. QME will not support the development of musical technique. 

It is not mandatory - it is an option for practitioners wishing to improve their skills in this area.

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What evidence is there that the qualification is needed?

QME builds on recommendations in the Creative Blueprint series of research, published by Creative & Cultural Skills between 2009 and 2011, which identified the need to improve the professional development opportunities for creative practitioners who work with young people in a range of settings.

Scoping research carried out by Creative & Cultural Skills in 2011 found that 95 per cent of respondents from the sector felt that there was inadequate professional development provision for creative practitioners working with children and young people and that the majority would welcome a new initiative in this area.

The same scoping research found over 200 existing professional development opportunities publicly available for creative practitioners working with children and young people. Taking these findings together, it was recommended that a clearly signposted progression route was needed, and that a new qualification would bring together existing units of CPD into one clear pathway.

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Why is the Arts Council involved in the development of qualifications? 

We have made it a priority to raise the standard of work for, by and with children and young people. The development of QME will help to professionalise music educators, improve their skills and develop reflective practice so that children and young people can be assured of the highest quality learning wherever they experience music education. 

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How is the qualification being developed?

We are working with Creative & Cultural Skills and the music educator sector to develop the qualification. We are pulling together existing qualifications and good practice in the sectors in order to find a starting point to develop this qualification and ensure contextualisation.

A steering group of experienced music educators are leading the development and are supported by a larger working group who are advising on the technical makeup of each unit. The steering group members will lead on consultation during autumn 2012. We are facilitating awarding organisation meetings in order for them to work with us to accredit and develop the content and delivery strategy.

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How will practitioners have access to the training and who pays?

The cost is yet to be confirmed but we anticipate that practitioners will need to make a contribution towards the delivery cost of this qualification. Taking the qualification is not and will not be a mandatory requirement for working in the sector. It will be taken by those who want to enhance their practice. Training will be accessed via a number of routes and will be academically-based with assessment.

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When will the new qualification be launched?

The qualification will be available in 2013.

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What quality controls will be in place?

This qualification has been developed and assessed by industry so quality controls are coming from within the sector as the qualification develops. It will be developed in consultation with industry to ensure it meets their specified standards. The qualification will be quality assured by the awarding body, which will assess it according to particular criteria. It will only be delivered by organisations approved by the awarding organisation.

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Who will be developing the QME qualification?

A partnership of sector representatives, awarding organisations and educational establishments and facilitated by Creative & Cultural Skills are working together to create the qualification.

Steering group membership for the project is as follows:

  • Anne Appelbaum (Arts Council England)
  • Jennie Godsalve (Creative & Cultural Skills)
  • Richard Crozier (Consultant)
  • Maureen Hanke (Federation of Music Services)
  • Kate Laurence (Institute of Education)
  • Diane Widdison (Musicians Union)
  • Ian Burton (Nottingham Music Service)
  • Philip Flood (Sound Connections)
  • Pamela McCormick (Urban Development)
  • Edward Watkins (West London Free School)
  • Lincoln Abbotts (ABRSM)
  • Sean Gregory (Barbican)
  • Fran Hanley (Musicians Union)
  • Linda Merrick (Royal Northern College of Music)
  • Claire Mera-Nelson (Trinity Laban)
  • Fiona Harvey (Association of British Orchestras)

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