Become an NCFE Approved Centre

Schools interested in applying to become an NCFE approved centre will be required to complete an Application to become an NCFE Approved Centre Form. If you're already approved by another recognised UK Awarding Body, we'll probably not need to carry out an approval visit. If you aren't already approved by another recognised UK awarding body, we'll need to carry out an approval visit to check you have the appropriate system and procedure in place to meet the NCFE Approval Criteria. This applies if your centre approval application with another Awarding Body is in progress.

If you're unsure as to whether or not you're currently working with a recognised UK awarding body, please refer to the Register of Regulated Qualifications.

If the awarding body you're looking for isn't in this list then it's not a recognised UK awarding body. A report commissioned by the Qualification and Curriculum Authority (QCA) last year by Price Waterhouse Coopers (PWC) entitled: The Market for Qualifications in the UK reported that whilst there were currently 115 recognised UK awarding bodies there was somewhere in the region of 900 unrecognised awarding bodies.

If your school is only approved by one of the unrecognised awarding bodies you'll need to complete the Application to become an NCFE Approved Centre Form and have an approval visit by an NCFE Approval Advisor to make sure that you can meet the NCFE Approval Criteria to become an approved centre.

Annual Administration Fee
NCFE charges a £400 Annual Administration Fee to all schools approved to offer our qualifications. This excludes centres offering our IIQ Licence or Customised Award service only. This annual fee is charged on 1 September or is calculated on a pro rata basis from the date that a new centre gains approval to deliver our qualifications.

Please note that this is a single charge per centre, and is not affected by the number of learners or variety of NCFE qualifications delivered by a centre.