McQualification

The Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA), a regulatory body which overseas the national curriculum in England and Wales and accredits qualifications, has approved three
organisations to award nationally-recognized qualifications.

Fast food giant McDonald's is to pilot a basic shift manager course, which will train staff in areas like marketing, human resources and customer service skills.Network Rail, which owns and operates Britain's rail infrastructure, will develop courses in track engineering while low-cost airline Flybe will run courses in areas like aircraft engineering and cabin crew training.

The courses will be the equivalent of GCSE (the standard exam taken aged 16 in England and Wales), Advanced Level (the higher exam taken at 18) or, in Flybe's case, university degree level.

The announcement is the first time commercial companies have been allowed to award nationally recognised qualifications based on their own workplace training schemes.

Skills Secretary John Denham said: "It is right that we recognise and accredit employers that have shown a commitment to training and developing their staff...This is an important step towards ending the old divisions between company training schemes and national qualifications, something that will benefit employees, employers and the country as a whole."