Vocational courses removed from Performance Tables

Vocational courses removed from league tables

Of more than 3,175 vocational qualifications currently regarded as equivalent to GCSEs just 70 will count towards five A* to C grades at GCSE, the Guardian reports. Another 55 will have GCSE equivalence but not count towards the 5A*-C measure. This will be from the results of Summer 2014. Schools will still be able to offer these courses. Full-course GCSEs, established iGCSEs, AS levels and music exams at grade six and above will count towards the tables.

As well as Principal Learning qualifications from the now-abandoned Diplomas, the qualifications which have been approved include those in Maths, English and Latin.

A full list of the approved qualifications may be found here.

Schools may offer any other qualification accredited and approved for study by 14- to 16-year-olds.

The Department for Education states that “Focusing Performance Tables on the qualifications which benefit pupils’ prospects will also free up time for a more balanced curriculum.”

Michael Gove said the changes would extend opportunity.

Professor Alison Wolf who wrote a report on vocational qualifications last year, writing in the Guardian, said: “An education system that ignores labour market realities is failing in its duty. Key stage 4 pupils will no longer be offered qualifications without labour market or progression value, solely in order to help a school rack up league-table points.

Employers could not care less about ‘points’ and ‘equivalences’ and how many of them a young person has. Many of them have only just got used to GCSEs, as opposed to O-levels. They look instead at whether young people have got certain, specific qualifications: ones which they recognise and value. English and maths GCSE (at C or above) are top of this list; these subjects will soon be compulsory for all 16- to 18-year-olds who have not yet achieved them. But employers also recognise and value some of the traditional school subjects, both for their content and because they signal general abilities, such as being able to analyse, write coherently, think quantitatively, and, indeed, work hard at something difficult. And educational gatekeepers – colleges and universities – are the same.

There is no reason whatsoever why some vocational courses could not be included in the list of qualifications that are highly respected. On the contrary, they can and should. But if you proclaim that everything is valuable, and that everything is worth the same, no one will believe you.”