The government’s curriculum and assessment review should look at the policy of forcing pupils who don’t pass GCSE English and maths to resit the subjects, the head of exams regulator Ofqual has said.
Today’s GCSE results saw both a reduction in the proportion of 16-year-olds achieving a grade 5 English and maths grades of 4 or above – a “standard pass” according to the government – and a fall in the pass rate for those re-taking the subjects.
Students who achieve a grade 3 have to retake their GCSE, while students with a grade 2 or below can either take a functional skills level 2 or resit their GCSE.
Pupils ‘consigned to a remorseless treadmill’
Today’s data has prompted fresh criticism of the policy, with leaders warning that pupils who don’t pass are “consigned to a remorseless treadmill of resits”.
Sir Ian Bauckham told FE Week’s sister title Schools Week he did not have view on the policy itself, which is a “matter for government”, but that it would be “helpful for the government’s curriculum and assessment review to take a look at this question, assess all the evidence in the round and reach a conclusion”.
Education secretary Bridget Phillipson last month appointed Professor Becky Francis, the head of the Education Endowment Foundation, to lead Labour’s curriculum and assessment review.
Labour’s policy under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership was to scrap the resits requirement, but the party has not re-committed to this under Sir Keir Starmer.
Asked if he had advised Phillipson to include the re-sits policy in the review, Bauckham said: “I think it would just be a very good thing if the curriculum and assessment reviews took that on board. Okay, I don’t think the secretary of state needs my advice on that.”
Eight in ten don’t pass re-takes
Of 185,727 pupils aged 17 and older who re-took GCSE maths this summer, just 32,316, or 17.4 per cent, achieved a grade 4 or above. Of the 148,569 who re-took English, just 31,050, or 20.9 per cent, achieved the benchmark.
Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said it was a “huge achievement that so many young people will now progress with confidence onto courses in colleges and sixth forms”.
However, he said “we must recognise that this is not the story in England for a significant proportion of students who fall short of achieving at least a grade 4 GCSE pass in English and maths”.
These pupils “will be consigned to a remorseless treadmill of resits in post-16 education under rules drawn up by the last government”.
Paul Whiteman, leader of the NAHT, said the resit policy “must be scrapped”.
“Those students who haven’t achieved the required grade are forced into repeated resits which are demotivating and can lead to disengagement with their learning
“For some young people alternative qualifications in maths and English would be a more positive and effective way to demonstrate their achievements and government policy should allow much more flexibility.”
Cath Sezen, director of education policy at Association of Colleges, added: “After 10 years of condition of funding the time is right to review government policy and look at a different way to support students to gain crucial English and maths skills, rather than putting them through a system which can leave many of them feeling that they have failed again and again.’’
There has been a small increase in the proportion of students achieving a grade 4 pass in their GCSE maths resit in England – but pass rates for English have continued to fall.
Results published today show that 17.4 per cent of the 185,727 post-16 learners taking GCSE maths in 2024 achieved a grade 4 or above – a 1 percentage point rise compared to last year.
This year’s maths resit grade 4 pass rate is, however, almost 4 percentage points lower than the pre-pandemic level of 21.2 per cent.
In English, 148,569 students entered to resit the GCSE in post-16 education and the proportion that achieved a grade 4 pass was 20.9 per cent. This is 5 percentage points lower than 2023, and almost 10 percentage points down on 2019.
The results mean there are over 31,000 more people who have gained their GCSE English grade 4 or above after failing to do so at school, and over 32,000 in maths.
Rising cohorts and gender gaps
A gender gap in pass rates is noticeable in post-16 GCSE English, where 25.9 per cent of females achieved a grade 4 or above compared to 17.3 per cent of males. In maths, the pass rate for females in 2024 was 18.2 per cent compared to 16.6 per cent for males.
Cohorts for both subjects were much higher in 2024: in English, there were 31,000 more resit entries compared to 2023 and 30,000 more entries to maths resits.
FE Week analysis shows that 175,898 pupils aged 16 failed to achieve a grade 4 GCSE maths in school this year and could need to resit the subject in 2024/25.
And for English, the data shows 181,682 didn’t achieve the grade 4 pass grade at school and are in line for retakes over the next year.
Where will Labour land on resits policy?
Introduced in 2014, the government’s resits policy forces students who have not achieved a grade 4 pass in English and/or maths GCSE by age 16 to continue to work towards achieving these qualifications as a condition of their places being funded.
Students who achieve a grade 3 have to retake their GCSE, while students with a grade 2 or below can either take a functional skills level 2 or resit their GCSE.
The policy has split the sector since its inception, with some arguing it is a vital lifeline for young people who struggled at school, while others say that forcing students to repeatedly retake the exams is demoralising.
Pepe Di’Iasio, General Secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, congratulated students on today’s results but added: “We must recognise that this is not the story in England for a significant proportion of students who fall short of achieving at least a grade 4 GCSE pass in English and maths, and so will be consigned to a remorseless treadmill of resits in post-16 education under rules drawn up by the last government.
“As this year’s results show, most of these students once again fall short of the grade 4 benchmark in their resits. This is completely demoralising.”
Di’Iasio called on the government to use its current curriculum and assessment review, being led by Professor Becky Francis, to “scrap the requirements which compel mass resits”.
University and College Union general secretary Jo Grady echoed the call.
She said: “This should be the last year that students are forced to endure the resit nightmare. Labour’s curriculum and assessment review should begin by recognising student’s diverse array of talents and focus on empowering students to study subjects they enjoy and enable them to thrive.”
Cath Sezen, director of education policy at Association of Colleges, added: “After 10 years of condition of funding the time is right to review government policy and look at a different way to support students to gain crucial English and maths skills, rather than putting them through a system which can leave many of them feeling that they have failed again and again.’’
England’s largest exam board has hiked fees for some of its most popular GCSE and A-level subjects by up to 10 per cent, as its competitors also set inflation-busting prices.
AQA’s A-level entry fees for top subjects next summer will be between 3.5 per cent and 7 per cent higher on this year, with GCSE prices typically increasing by about 3.5 per cent.
But next year entry to AQA’s business studies and geography GCSEs – two of their most popular subjects – will cost 10 per cent more, as will entries to citizenship, economics and sociology. A geography entry will rise from £48.20 to £53.05.
Entries into AQA’s A-level languages will also cost about 7 per cent more, the analysis by Lee Hitchen of the Academic Enrichment Centre, a former OCR staffer, shows.
A-level and GCSE subjects with more than 30,000 and 100,000 entries respectively were treated as the most popular courses for the analysis.
OCR and Pearson Edexcel have also raised their fees for next year, typically increasing them by 6 per cent and 5.9 per cent, respectively. These jumps outstrip the current rate of inflation, which was 2.2 per cent in the year to July.
The exam boards now look set to net millions in extra entry fee revenue between them across GCSEs and A-levels next summer. It comes after an Ofqual report in May revealed prices of GCSE and A-level exams had already soared by 6.4 per cent this year.
Schools and colleges ‘simply cannot afford rises’
Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, vowed to raise the issue with exams regulator Ofqual and ministers.
“We can see no justifiable reason why exam fees should rise by any more than (the current rate of inflation), let alone the significantly higher increases being charged by the exam boards.
Pepe DiIasio
“It is completely unacceptable and will put schools and colleges under yet more cost pressures that they simply cannot afford.”
AQA published its summer 2025 entry fees last month, initially reporting most would rise by about two per cent, with a few exceptions.
It said this initial publication contained some incorrect numbers, which it corrected that day and before other exam boards published their own fees.
Across the 11 most popular A-level subjects looked at for the analysis, AQA is predicted to accrue an additional £755,000 in revenue after upwardly revising its initial figures.
Rises ‘hard to stomach’ but earlier publication welcome
Paul Whiteman, National Association of Headteachers general secretary, said the financial pressures facing schools and colleges meant “all costs are subject to review and these above-inflation rises by exam boards are really hard to stomach”.
“The cost of examinations is not discretionary expenditure for secondary schools and colleges – the only choice they have is which exam board to use for the qualifications they offer.”
Paul Whiteman
But NAHT welcomed exam boards publishing pricing information earlier, saying it helped cash-strapped schools and colleges plan upcoming expenditure.
However, this “does not in itself compensate for the additional budgetary pressures these big increases in fees will place upon schools and colleges”.
“As an education charity, we reinvest exam entry fees back into education and research,” and AQA spokesperson said.
“Like many other organisations we’ve had to deal with rising costs. Last month, we announced increases to exam entry fees so that they better reflect the true cost of delivering qualifications.”
Exam boards say they’ve kept fees ‘as low as possible’
Pearson has increased fees for its A-level and GCSE sciences by about 5.9 per cent for next summer, with similar jumps across other subjects.
A spokesperson for the company said its recognised “budgets are stretched” and will “always aim to keep fee increases to a minimum, while providing as much value for money as possible”.
They said the fees include “two full years of support for teachers”, with “access to scripts at no extra charge, as well as data for staff to help inform more personalised teaching and learning”.
OCR’s entry fee for A-level maths next summer is £156, up 6.12 per cent on £147 this year, among other rises.
A spokesperson for OCR said: “As a not-for-profit, OCR only increases fees to meet rising costs and fund essential investment to keep exams fair, secure, and future-proof.
“We’ve done everything we can to keep our fees as low as possible despite continuing cost pressures.”
They said it took time for cost pressures to feed through the supply chain, meaning there is often a lag between headline economic indicators and qualification fee increases.
Cumulatively, over the past three years OCR said its fees had increased in line with the average Consumer Price Index (CPI) for the period – about 6 per cent.
The government has launched its hunt for a permanent chair and seven board members to oversee its new quango, Skills England.
Labour ministers, who hope the organisation will fix the “fragmented and broken” skills system, are expected to form Skills England as a full arm’s length body over the next “six to nine months”.
Richard Pennycook, a Department for Education non-executive director and former boss of the Co-operative Group, was named interim chair last month. An interim chief executive is yet to be appointed.
Adverts for a permanent chair and seven board members went live yesterday.
According to job applications, the chair and board will be expected to spend 20 days per year delivering “clear strategic direction, specialist expertise and independent scrutiny” to Skills England.
The chair, paid £25,000 per year, will work closely with the CEO and board to set the organisation’s objectives, support “effective decision making” and “deliver high standards” of corporate governance.
The government is seeking a strategic thinker, with good communication skills and experience driving forward the work of an organisation.
This could include expertise in skills or migration, preferably through academia, a think tank, business or a public body.
By early November, all shortlisted candidates are expected to be interviewed by an advisory assessment panel, comprised of senior representatives from the DfE, Skills England and an independent panel member.
The successful candidate will serve a term of up to three years once Skills England is fully operational.
Board members – paid £10,000 to £15,000 per year – will be expected to provide “independent perspective and insight” to the responsible minister, helping set key strategic objectives and identifying “high-quality feedback loops” between the government and skills bodies across the country.
Other duties include ensuring Skills England complies with its legal duties, spends public funds appropriately and observes “high standards of corporate governance”.
The DfE has been recruiting for other Skills England roles in recent weeks. For example, it is currently recruiting a £75,000-a-year operations deputy director to help “develop and drive forward the design and set up” of the new body.
Boards of similar government bodies such as the DfE meet seven times last year, while the board of the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education, whose functions will transfer to Skills England and potentially many of its staff, met six times.
The government hopes Skills England will help the country meet regional and national skills needs over the next decade by developing a “single picture” of skills needs and prioritising funding for training.
Ministers have confirmed Skills England will also decide what non-apprenticeship training courses employers can fund through the proposed growth and skills levy, which is set to replace the apprenticeship levy.
Labour has said Skills England’s work will sit alongside a national industrial strategy and a requirement for towns, cities and regions to produce “local growth plans”.
During the general election campaign, Labour accused the previous government of lacking “a proper plan” to address national skills shortages.
The party promised to cut overseas recruitment and overall immigration figures by targeting training at key sectors.
Earlier this month, home secretary Yvette Cooper wrote to the migration advisory committee asking it whether training is one of the factors behind at high levels of foreign visas granted to IT and engineering professionals.
“The current high levels of international recruitment reflect weaknesses in the labour market including persistent skills shortages in the UK,” she wrote.
“The current approach is not sustainable and the system as it exists is not operating in the national interest. “This government will deliver a fair, coherent, more joined up approach to the labour market by linking immigration with skills policy.”
After years of rising suspension rates, the pandemic pause has given way to a striking resurgence. According to the latest data, they are at their highest rate since records began, with over 780,000 suspensions issued during the 2022/23 academic year—200,000 more than the previous year.
Although suspension is a less serious sanction than permanent exclusion, new EPI research has found that outcomes for suspended pupils are poor years after the end of secondary school.
We find that pupils suspended even once are around half as likely to be in sustained employment or education in early adulthood, and almost three times more likely to receive out-of-work or health benefits.
These findings do not prove that receiving one, three, or a dozen suspensions causes poor outcomes – although we do find that outcomes are worse the more suspensions a young person receives.
For example, the 8,000 or so pupils who had been suspended ten or more times were almost five times more likely to be in receipt of out-of-work or health-related benefits by age 24 – and doing just as poorly as permanently excluded pupils on a range of additional education and employment measures.
Much of the relationship between suspensions and poorer outcomes is explained by lower GCSE attainment: in a previous report, we found that suspended pupils may be up to a year behind their not-suspended peers by the end of secondary school.
Whilst this is not a story of x causing y, it is, for many children, a story of the accumulation of difficult experiences: most children who get suspended from school are from a low-income household and close to half have a special educational need.
In other words, the current system is one in which sanctions are frequently issued to remove children from the classroom, the majority of whom are from financially stressed families, many of whom already have barriers to learning and may struggle to engage at school. Legally, pupils can be suspended for up to 45 days – close to a quarter – of the school year. These pupils are significantly less likely to complete a level 3 qualification, attend higher education, and be in a sustained positive destination in early adulthood.
The context is that teachers aren’t receiving sufficient training and schools are lacking the resources to properly support at-risk young people. They may also be struggling with their own wellbeing and heavy workloads. On top of this, it’s very difficult to access timely support for children with additional needs including mental health issues – with many more struggling with emotional problems post pandemic.
In this context, suspensions may be a viable short-term fix which could have the desired effect of temporarily reducing disruption for other pupils in the classroom – a not unworthy goal. They may even have the desired impact as a sanction for the half of suspended pupils who do not go on to receive additional suspensions.
Empirically, however, they do not have the desired effect on the other half of suspended pupils who go on to receive additional suspensions. Moreover, for all pupils who are suspended, we cannot say that suspension contributes to putting them on a better path, given what we now know about their education and early adult outcomes. In fact, our research shows that a fifth of all suspended pupils become persistently absent after their first suspension.
The rise in suspensions is a complex issue – driven by a combination of behavioural, systemic, and societal factors, and exacerbated by the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic and resource constraints in the education system. Teaching unions partially attribute the rise in challenging behaviour to mental health problems among pupils. Long waiting lists and higher thresholds for accessing mental health services and social care have made it harder for children and families to get help.
Disruptions to learning, violence towards pupils and staff, worries about safety – these are genuine concerns in schools, according to both anecdotal evidence and teachers surveys. Whilst the data shows suspensions are overwhelmingly issued for persistent disruptive behaviour, a significant minority are issued for verbal abuse toward adults (16%) and peer physical assault (13%). These are real problems which deserve to be addressed thoughtfully.
At the same time, it is important to note that the proportion of suspensions for disruptive behaviour has risen substantially in recent years (from 30 per cent in 2017/18 to 48 per cent in 2022/23), whilst all the other more serious infractions now account for a smaller share – challenging the idea that aggressive behaviour is driving higher suspension rates.
It comes down to this: accepting that some children will have poor trajectories into adulthood because they’ve been ‘bad’ at school means writing off hundreds of thousands of young people whose brains and decision-making abilities are still developing. It implies that some children, who happen to be on the whole more disadvantaged, have less of a right to education than others, and this could have long-lasting consequences, for them as individuals and for society as a whole.
Young people suspended during secondary school are twice as likely to not achieve a level 3 qualification by age 19 and be out of education, employment and training by 24, new research has found.
However, researchers warned the findings show “strong associations” rather than “definitive causal effects” of suspensions as other factors, including limited opportunities due to lower GCSE results, attitudes towards learning and family support could have had an impact.
The Education Policy Institute tracked a cohort of 576,000 students who started year 7 in state schools in 2006 into their mid-20s. Researchers found that 16 per cent of pupils were suspended at least once in secondary school.
Compared to students who are not suspended, those suspended were 2.1 times as likely to not achieve level 3 qualifications by age 19, 1.6 times as likely to not attend university by age 24, and 2.0 times as likely to not be in sustained education, employment or training (NEET) at age 24.
In addition, suspended students were 2.5 times as likely to receive out-of-work benefits by age 24 and 2.7 times as likely to receive health-related benefits by age 24.
Today’s report builds on EPI research published in March which found suspended secondary school pupils are about a year behind their peers on average by the time they take their GCSEs and are less likely to pass crucial maths and English exams.
The think tank has made several policy recommendations, including that the Department for Education (DfE) should consider conducting a programme of work which sets out “how to best respond to behaviour that reflects the evidence on in-school and out-of-school drivers”.
Carlie Goldsmith, senior policy adviser at Impetus, said: “While it is not a surprise that suspended pupils get worse outcomes, we now know how much worse these outcomes are, and can put a number on the ‘employment grades gap’ for the first time.
“Suspensions are sometimes necessary, however, given the long-term consequences for both the individual and to wider society, supporting pupils who are struggling to engage in mainstream education, and in particular making sure they achieve crucial GCSEs, must be a priority for government.
“We should aim for lower exclusion levels not simply for the sake of it, but because it would be a sign of a more effective education system for pupils and teachers alike.”
In England, headteachers can suspend pupils for up to 45 days of the academic year. The suspension rate in secondary schools has been steadily increasing since 2013/14, reaching its highest point since public records began in 2022/23 with a rate of 9.33, equivalent to 933 suspensions per 10,000 pupils.
This is the latest year of data, but real-time absence data suggests that this trend is set to continue in 2023/24, EPI said.
The think tank’s research found that pupils with multiple suspensions have poorer outcomes in early adulthood and multiple suspensions tend to be “cumulatively associated with poor early adult outcomes”.
For example, students were 1.8 times more likely to not achieve a level 3 qualification by age 19 if they were suspended once, which increases to 2.4 times for those suspended five times, and 2.6 times if the learner was suspended ten times or more.
Risk ratios for pupils suspended multiple times
Pupils suspended ten or more times also appear to have just as poor, if not poorer, outcomes compared to those who experience permanent exclusion (see table below).
EPI said the DfE should develop the evidence base on what works to support pupils who experience multiple suspensions.
The think tank did however point out that factors contributing to suspensions, as well as suspensions themselves, may have influenced GCSE performance, which in turn is related to outcomes in adulthood.
“In other words, the association between suspension and outcomes in adulthood may be indirect, accounted for by lower GCSE grades which limit opportunities for higher study,” a spokesperson explained.
The report added there are other limitations to the research, including that researchers cannot distinguish between the impact of the behaviour leading to the suspension and the suspension itself. It is also possible that the “associations may still be related to unmeasured pupil factors (e.g. attitudes towards learning) and contextual factors (e.g. family support)”.
Nevertheless, Allen Joseph, EPI’s researcher in early years, inequalities and wellbeing, said that given the poor individual-level outcomes and wider societal costs identified in the research, it is “imperative” that schools, colleges, and wider services are “adequately resourced to address the circumstances and respond to the behaviour that resulted in the suspension”.
Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “This analysis highlights a critical issue – pupils with behavioural challenges serious enough to result in being suspended are significantly less likely to achieve positive outcomes in education and life. This is not only a personal tragedy for them but also a considerable challenge for schools.”
He added that “no school ever wishes to suspend a pupil” which is a measure taken “only as a last resort” and called for early intervention as it is “essential to prevent behavioural issues from escalating”.
A DfE spokesperson said: “The recent figures on school suspensions are shocking and show the massive scale of disruptive behaviour that has developed in schools across the country in recent years, harming the life chances of children.
“We are determined to get to grips with the causes of poor behaviour: we’ve already committed to providing access to specialist mental health professionals in every secondary school, introducing free breakfast clubs in every primary school, and ensuring earlier intervention in mainstream schools for pupils with special needs.
“But we know poor behaviour can also be rooted in wider issues, which is why the government is developing an ambitious strategy to reduce child poverty led by a taskforce co-chaired by the education secretary so that we can break down the barriers to opportunity.”
NHS leaders in the North East and Yorkshire are set to cut their decade-old apprenticeship provision next year, even after receiving top marks from Ofsted.
The inspectorate published an ‘outstanding’ report for NHS England North East and Yorkshire last week and praised its “high quality” provision for 126 apprentices training across five health and engineering standards in the health service.
But the report also revealed that NHS leaders in the region intend to “cease delivery” of apprenticeships from 2025 and are not currently recruiting new apprentices.
Leaders explained the abandonment was to “fall in line with wider policy” following the merger of Health Education England and NHS England in April 2023.
They added that the apprenticeship programme was established by the region’s own NHS office when sourcing this specific provision elsewhere was challenging. But this is no longer the case, and management can now be handled by alternative providers, presumably saving the office money on delivery costs.
NHS England North East and Yorkshire has over 10 years’ experience of providing apprenticeships in health and social care, business administration and engineering and manufacturing sectors. In 2022/23, the region recruited 4,639 people onto an apprenticeship.
A spokesperson for the region said it is working on a “smooth transition to alternative providers where necessary” for apprentices and it is prioritising the growth of apprenticeships as outlined in the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan, which came out last June.
NHS England aims to triple the number of apprentices in the health service by 2030, so they make up one in six new recruits.
NHS apprentices achieve ‘exceptionally well’
The ‘outstanding’ award was the first for the NHS regional office, having last received a ‘good’ rating at a short inspection in 2018 and the same at full inspection in 2015.
Most of the 126 apprentices at the time of inspection were on level 3 and 4 programmes across five apprenticeship standards: senior healthcare support worker, healthcare engineering specialist technician, mammography associate, oral health practitioner and science industry maintenance technician.
The watchdog found prospective apprentices were accepted after a “rigorous selection and interview process” and tutors work to accurately identify their starting points.
Inspectors also praised apprentices’ high motivations, which lead to “exceptionally well” achievements, with a very high proportion gaining distinction grades.
Apprentices were found to take on more senior roles, acting as “well-respected” role models for new apprentices and becoming advocates for apprenticeships.
The report added that leaders provide “high-quality” apprenticeships to meet specialist skills shortage areas in the health service.
Ofsted also commended leaders for their “strong commitment to widening participation” by recruiting apprentices from the most deprived areas.
The disturbing and depressing images of rioters on the streets of England’s towns are a reminder of the huge and complex challenge we face in tackling the simmering anger of a section of our society that feels resentful and marginalised.
Exploring the focus of the rioters’ fury – immigrants and asylum seekers – takes us into a complicated and highly-charged policy area. The year-on-year rise in net migration to the UK has been a political hot potato for years, especially since the dramatic rise in unauthorised cross-Channel arrivals by boat.
The resulting – completely illogical – response by the previous government to restrict the numbers of international students coming to study in the UK is now hopefully coming to an end under Labour, who have committed to retaining the graduate visa route and spoken in positive terms about the value of foreign students. For more detail on why this is the right policy, read our piece on ‘International Students and Immigration: Tackling Myths and Misconceptions’.
While the latest figures (July 2024) show a sharp reduction in applications for study visas, this might well be at the expense of tipping some struggling universities into financial disaster.
We know that 99 per cent of overseas students return to their country shortly after completing their studies, and the Migration Advisory Committee’s recent report found no evidence of abuse of the study visa system. It’s hard to see why the government doesn’t simply remove study-related migration from the net migration figure used to set immigration targets, as international students are not long-term immigrants and should not be central to the debate over immigration policy.
The skills shortages that have proliferated since Brexit are a big part of the underlying problem, but the solution is far from straightforward. To take one of the most prominent examples, of the 315,000 work visas approved between March 2023 – March 2024, nearly 119,000 (38 per cent) are related to filling health and care sector vacancies currently running at historically high levels.
Recruiting more nurses is a top priority, but according to a July 2024 statement from the Royal College of Nursing based on UCAS data, there has been an 8 per cent year-on-year drop in applicants for nursing degrees, amounting to a 27 per cent decline since 2021. The supply of trained nurses is already running behind target, leading to a steadily increasing reliance on fully trained recruits from overseas, mostly from non-EU countries.
The problem is compounded by the rising number of staff leaving the workforce; the leaver rate for nurses reached 12.5 per cent in 2022, while the rate for care staff was 28 per cent in 2022/23. Most leavers cite pay, unsocial hours and stressful working conditions as the reason for putting in their notice.
The conclusion has to be that, while it’s vital to expand the number of students on health and care courses, urgent action is needed to ensure we retain those who get qualified and go into jobs. There are similar challenges in many other occupational areas, including IT, engineering, and construction.
Given this starting point, action on several fronts is necessary. As far as immigration policy is concerned, we advocate a two-pronged approach: Firm but fair measures to clamp down on illegal immigration, but alongside this a “settlement-positive” approach to integrating legal migrants into work and society, as our report ‘ESOL for Skills’ recommended.
The correct short-term response to the riots is robust policing and swift justice for offenders, which is exactly what the government is doing.
But a key part of the longer-term solution has to be the government’s proposals for Skills England, which is planned to have direct links to the Migration Advisory Committee, and a refreshed Industrial Strategy.
It’s a challenging but logical strategy, which will hopefully help to put an end to the irrationality and violence we’re witnessing this summer.
Vocational and technical qualification (VTQ) and T Level results for 2024 are out today – here’s FE Week’s round-up of the key trends.
400,000 VTQ results delivered
There were no signs of any delays to BTEC and other VTQ grades this year, after the fiasco two years ago, whereby Ofqual launched an action plan to mandate awarding organisations and education institutions to comply with strict data checks and deadlines.
More than 400,000 results have been issued this summer across over 500 vocational and technical qualifications.
Ofqual today released the results for the 15 awarding organisations which handed out 249,950 VTQ grades across 245 performance table qualifications, a near 3 per cent decline from the year prior.
The largest cohort of VTQs was in business, administration and law – 60,300 certificates were awarded this year, a drop from the 61,200 handed out in 2023.
Last year, Ofqual data showed under 180 results were “routinely withheld” awaiting internal processing. But this year, Cath Jadhav, vice president of Pearson which offers BTECs, said that the inclusion of term time checkpoints for school and colleges meant that “every student who is eligible for a result will receive one today”.
Margaret Farragher, the Joint Council for Qualification’s chief executive, said: “While the pandemic is now behind us, we must acknowledge that this group of students faced disruption during their education and pay tribute to their resilience. I would also like to recognise and thank exams officers and teachers for supporting students with their assessments. They have once again helped to deliver a smooth and successful exam series, evident from today’s results.”
VTQ high achievements similar to last year
Of the total 249,950 VTQ results today, 217,600 were for applied generals, like BTECs, and 32,400 were for tech levels.
Ofqual’s data shows nearly 9 per cent – 22,100 – achieved top grades of either A* or distinction* depending on the grading scale their qualification uses. This is a nudge lower than the 2023 results where 23,500 got top grades.
Source: Ofqual
Analysis from Ofqual found the probability of an average student attaining the top grade in level 3 applied generals was 2.9 per cent and 4.6 per cent in tech levels respectively in 2023, similar to 2019 but lower than in 2022.
Sir Ian Bauckham, Ofqual Chief Regulator, said: “Congratulations to all students receiving their results today. This is the culmination of a lot of hard work for them and everyone who supported them on the way.
“Qualifications help people achieve their full potential and these vocational and technical qualifications will be used for onward progression to HE, further study and employment.”
T Level pass rate at 89%
Across the total 7,380 students studying T Levels this year, 88.7 per cent achieved a pass or above. But figures show nearly 3,000 students – over one quarter – have dropped out since they were recruited in 2022.
The take-up of T Levels has shot up as more subjects come on stream. Last year, 3,448 received results and 90.5 per cent passed.
Divided by gender, the pass rate was significantly higher among women, at 94.7 per cent compared with 83.9 per cent of men.
Education and early years had the highest pass rate of 96.2 per cent among its 1,533 students. Meanwhile, design and development for engineering and manufacturing had the lowest (69.9 per cent across 555 students).
The finance T Level saw 51.4 per cent of the cohort achieving a distinction or above, but only 37 students took the qualification. This was the first set of students to achieve the qualification after it was introduced in 2022.
In the core component of the qualification – usually a written exam and employer-set project – 98 per cent of all students received a grade of E or above. However, the most common grade was a D, with one-third of the 7,380 students receiving this grade.
Education and early years, which has been running since 2020, received the highest proportion of high grades, with 37 per cent awarded a B or above.
The occupational specialism component of a T Level is assessed through a practical project or assignments, typically taken in the second year of the T Level. 93 per cent of students passed this component of their T Level, the majority (49.2 per cent) receiving a merit.
Design and development for engineering and manufacturing had the lowest pass rate (72.3 per cent amongst 555 students).
Building services engineering T Level students struggle with industry placements
The on-the-job training part of a T Level is achieved through an industry placement of at least 315 hours – approximately 45 days. Students needed to complete their placement by August of their second year.
Building services engineering students had the lowest proportion of industry placement completions – just over one in 10 (13 per cent) of the 318 students didn’t complete the placement for their construction T Level.
A further one in ten (11 per cent) students on the maintenance installation and repair for engineering and manufacturing T Level also did not complete the placement.
Meanwhile, almost all (98.5 per cent) 65 healthcare science learners completed their industry placement.
But education and early years remains the success story. It had the highest number of enrolments of all available T Levels (1,533) and just 2 per cent (37) students did not complete the industry placement.
Further gender split across T Level disciplines
The gender divide in certain disciplines remains the same as previous years.
T Levels in construction was heavily dominated by men. Building services engineering had just 9 women enrolled this year – 3 per cent of the cohort – and onsite construction had 5 women, making up 4 per cent of the total students.
Meanwhile, the education and early years T level was made up predominantly of women; 94 per cent of the 1,533 enrolled students. The same goes for health – 91 per cent of the 1,044 students were women.
Overall, the total gender split was 44 per cent women and 56 per cent men achieving T Levels this year.
VTQ distinctions higher than T Levels
A higher proportion of students studying VTQs equivalent to three A-levels received top grades than T Level students. T Levels are described as being equivalent to three A Levels.
Over one-third (37 per cent) of VTQ students were awarded distinction or above compared to 16 per cent of T Level students.
Meanwhile, the majority of T Level students received a merit grade (63 per cent).
Ofqual stated T Levels continue to be generously graded given they are new qualifications.
Speaking on Radio 4’s Today Programme this morning, education secretary Bridget Phillipson said: “T Levels are here to stay, but we need to make them work and we need to make them work better than has been the case. But alongside that, we need to make sure there are other routes for our young people. T Levels won’t be the answer, won’t be the solution for every young person that is considering a technical or vocational route.”
T Levels most popular in the North West
Today’s data from the Department for Education includes a regional breakdown of where T Levels are being taught.
The area with the most number of T Level results this year is the North West (1,458), followed by the South East (1,331). Meanwhile, the region with the lowest number of T Level results overall is the North East (480), followed by London (496).
The North East did however see the biggest regional growth, with 161 per cent more students on T Levels than the 184 enrolled last year.
The education and early years route made up the majority of students in the North East region – 29 per cent of all enrolments.
The route has been popular for most regions of England, apart from London, where only 62 of its 496 students in the area signed up for education and early years. The region saw a 141 per cent growth in student numbers from last year, with most students opting for the health and science route of the health T Level.
