Qualifications Scotland · RQF Level 2
SQA Level 2 NVQ Certificate in Design Support
You don’t just earn this. You learn to use it, one-to-one, on your own real work.
- LevelRQF Level 2
- Total credits31
- Guided learning202 hours
- Units in this qualification16
Awarded by Qualifications Scotland · on the Ofqual register
Start here
See how this course maps onto your role
Ten quick questions, one per Future Fluency, asked against this qualification rather than a generic one.
About 5 minutes · No card · Nothing to commit to
What you’ll learn
What each unit actually teaches you to do
These are the units Qualifications Scotland registers against this qualification. It is a catalogue, not a syllabus. Which of them you take depends on the combination the qualification requires, and that is set by the awarding body rather than by us. Every unit here is regulated, and every one you earn is yours to keep.
Application of techniques for the design of productsReal unit · Qualifications Scotland
What you'll be able to do
- Understand the formal elements and principles of design
- Know about common techniques, materials, tools and equipment and their application to design and manufacture
- Adopt the preferred approach based on the requirements of the brief
Applying research on the history and theory of design to design activitiesReal unit · Qualifications Scotland
What you'll be able to do
- Understand how to find relevant sources of information on design history and theory
- Use opportunities to update and expand their knowledge of design trends and developments
Assist in following a design processReal unit · Qualifications Scotland
What you'll be able to do
- Interpret the nature and scope of the design challenge set by stakeholders
- Contribute to the range of ideas to respond to the design challenge
- Suggest a preferred design solution
- Contribute to generation of the preferred design solution
- Collate feedback from stakeholders
Assist in the production of prototypes, models, mock-ups, artwork, samples or test piecesReal unit · Qualifications Scotland
What you'll be able to do
- Understand the purpose of realising a design prototype, model, mock-up, artwork, sample or test piece
- Follow a brief to create a prototype, model, mock-up, artwork, sample or test piece
Assist with marketing activitiesReal unit · Qualifications Scotland
What you'll be able to do
- Understand marketing principles and the importance of branding and corporate identity in marketing
- Identify the target audience of a marketing activity
- Identify the desired outcomes of a marketing activity
- Assist in the preparation of an ongoing marketing plan
- Assist in the costing of an ongoing marketing plan
- Assist in the implementation of an ongoing marketing plan
- Assist in the production of marketing materials
- Assist in the collection of data to inform future actions
- Assist in the analysis of data to inform future actions
Create Visual DesignsReal unit · Qualifications Scotland
What you'll be able to do
- Clarify the visual design requirements for a brief
- Generate a range of visual design ideas to meet the brief
- Select the final design concept for client approval
- Develop the design using agreed concepts and techniques
Deliver a presentationReal unit · Qualifications Scotland
What you'll be able to do
- Understand the purpose of preparing for and evaluating a presentation
- Understand the techniques used in enhancing a presentation
- Prepare for delivery of a presentation
- Deliver a presentation
- Evaluate a presentation
Develop design principles and techniques and processes for designing productsReal unit · Qualifications Scotland
What you'll be able to do
- Understand the formal elements and principles of design
- Understand how to apply common techniques, materials, tools and equipment to design and manufacture
Explore the use of colour in a creative environmentReal unit · Qualifications Scotland
What you'll be able to do
- Understand the application of colour theory in design
- Use colour theory in design practise
How the design industry worksReal unit · Qualifications Scotland
What you'll be able to do
- Understand the concept of a ‘design industry’
- Understand the scope for employment in the design industry
- Understand the current changes that impact on the design industry
- Understand how ownership rights impact on the design industry
How to follow a design processReal unit · Qualifications Scotland
What you'll be able to do
- Understand the relationship between business needs and the design process
- Know the key features and steps in the design process from concept to review
- Understand how different ownership rights may impact on the design process
Principles and implementation of relevant legislation in designReal unit · Qualifications Scotland
What you'll be able to do
- Understand relevant legislation, principles and codes of practice in the context of the design industry
- Understand the impact of relevant legislation on the design industry
Provide written information in relation to design workReal unit · Qualifications Scotland
What you'll be able to do
- Understand the purpose of the written communication
- Produce written information in an approved style and format
- Understand how confidentiality applies to the production of written information
Research, test and apply techniques for the design of productsReal unit · Qualifications Scotland
What you'll be able to do
- Produce a plan which interprets a design brief
- Identify possible approaches to a design brief
- Adopt the preferred approach based on the requirements of the brief
Understanding the design briefReal unit · Qualifications Scotland
What you'll be able to do
- Able to understand why a design brief is critical to the design process
- Able to determine the design brief requirements
Working in a teamReal unit · Qualifications Scotland
What you'll be able to do
- Apply the skills needed to form collabourative relationships.
- Adapt their behaviour within a team to ensure successful working relationships are established and maintained.
- Know the approaches that can be used to resolve issues and achieve team goals.
The honest bit
You’ve started things before
Most courses were built for a room full of people who aren’t you. A cohort moves on whether or not your week allowed it, and by the third week the thing you’re behind on becomes the reason you stop opening it.
There’s no cohort here, and no timetable to fall behind. Before anything starts, Zavmo asks when you’re sharpest and how long you can realistically sit down for, then builds the sessions around those answers. A bad fortnight changes your pace. It doesn’t put you behind.
And you only pay once you start learning. Searching and planning are free, and you can cancel any time — so the cost of finding out is an afternoon, not a year.
Your passport
Every credit is a stamp you keep
Level 2 credits are regulated. They don’t vanish when a subscription ends or a website closes. They travel to any employer, and Zavmo keeps the map of what you’ve earned and what’s next.
Each stamp is a real unit registered against this qualification.
Who’d teach you this
The Evidence Evaluator
Assessor
Helps you show what you can actually do, gathering the evidence that proves it as you learn.
Meet all twelve tutorsWhere this connects
Where these credits take you
A qualification is never a dead end here. See the jobs its credits open, the national occupational standards its units map to, and the future skills they quietly build.
- Apply research on the history and theory of design to your own design activities
- Communicate the importance of the design brief
- Contribute to the design and making process for craft
- Contribute to the production of design test pieces
- Create 2D or 3D Visuals to Meet Concept Design Requirements
- Create visual references
- Determine Design Briefs
- Determine the brief and design visualisation
Where this can lead
Associate Marketing Design Coordinator
This Associate role is just the beginning. We're looking for someone with the drive to learn and grow, and we'll invest in your development. Where you go from here is really up to you and your ambition.
See the whole journey →Showing 6 roles, drawn from 57 job records mapped to this qualification.
Skills it covers
What the job actually needs. These are the standards the units are built against, in the words employers and awarding bodies already use for the work itself.
How you’ll actually learn this
One-to-one, on your own real work
A qualification is usually something done to you: sit the class, sit the exam, hope it sticks. Here it’s the opposite. You learn it one-to-one with a companion, on your own real work, and you keep going until you can use it, not just recall it.
Applied to your work in any of these jobs
- Remember
- Understand
- Apply
- Analyse
- Evaluate
- Create
Built for SQA Level 2 NVQ Certificate in Design Support
16 units in this credential, in the order it lists them, awarded by Qualifications Scotland.
- Application of techniques for the design of products
- Applying research on the history and theory of design to design activities
- Assist in following a design process
- Assist in the production of prototypes, models, mock-ups, artwork, samples or test pieces
- Assist with marketing activities
- Create Visual Designs
and 10 more in the full unit list below.
One to one, not one to many
No two people run this the same way
A course is written once and handed to everyone. This is assembled around you, and keeps changing as it learns you. Five things it reads, and what each one changes.
- Your actual work Every unit is taught against a live piece of your own work, not a worked example from a textbook.
- What you already know The first conversation finds your starting point, so you skip what you can already do and spend the time on what you cannot.
- The conditions you learn under Not a learning-styles quiz. The evidence does not support those. The dimensions the research does back, read once and used to shape the plan.
- How far you got last time It picks up mid-thought. The tutor knows what you said, what you struggled with, and what it asked you to try.
- Which tutor suits the moment Twelve of them, each for a different kind of thinking. The one who walks you through a first idea is not the one who stress-tests it.
See how you learn, free. Eight questions, no sign-up. A directional taster; the diagnostic inside Zavmo goes deeper and keeps adapting.
Why it sticks
Most courses stop at remembering
There’s a well-known ladder of how deeply you learn something, called Bloom’s Taxonomy. Most courses get you up the first two rungs: you remember some facts, you pass a test, you forget it. Real skill lives at the top. Judging, deciding, creating. And this isn’t a generic ladder: every rung has a named Zavmo tutor who walks you up it.
- 6CreateThe Creative Catalyst
- 5EvaluateThe Evidence Evaluator
- 4AnalyseThe Analyst
- 3ApplyThe Coach
- 2UnderstandThe Connector
- 1RememberThe Builder
Where most courses leave you Where Zavmo takes you
The value
Why the companion is worth £70 a month
You’re not paying for the units. They’re regulated, and the same wherever you earn them. You’re paying for the one thing that decides whether you actually get there: a companion that makes them stick, on your real work.
That is one-to-one on this qualification, every day, on the work you already do, for £70 a month. Your first module is free, so you can see the teaching before you pay for any of it. Billed monthly, cancel any time and billing stops.
Earned on your own work, taught to the top.
Everything you just read, learned one-to-one on the job you already do. Your first module is free, so you can see the teaching before you pay for any of it.
Build my plan, freeNo card. See how this qualification maps onto your role and meet the tutors who’d teach it, free. The learning begins when you subscribe. It’s £70 a month, billed monthly. Cancel any time and billing stops.