A government consultation that asks for views on plans to remove funding for applied general qualifications, such as BTECs, that compete with T Levels and A-levels has been extended.
The deadline for responding to the second stage of the level 3 qualifications review was set for tomorrow, but will now remain open until 31 January.
The DfE claims there is currently a “confusing landscape” of over 12,000 courses on offer to young people at level 3 and below, with multiple qualifications in the same subject areas available – many of which are “poor quality and offer little value to students or employers”.
The consultation was launched in October and set out detailed measures that the education secretary Gavin Williamson plans to take to tackle this, including removing funding for the “majority” of qualifications that “overlap” with A-levels and T Levels by autumn 2023.
It also includes plans to open T Levels up to adults from 2023.
More details on the plans can be found here, and the consultation can be accessed here.
Pearson, the awarding body that runs BTECs, launched a campaign in December to encourage students to respond to the consultation, insisting that “offering learners a choice in what qualification suits their career aspirations best is the right way to support them and the UK economy – both now and in the future”.
The nationally procured adult education budget contracts with the Education and Skills Funding Agency come to an end in July this year, so a new £80 million procurement round will take place, as reported by FE Week in October.
On 16 December the ESFA published an early engagement notice on the Contract Finder website, “to notify the market of a forthcoming procurement opportunity for delivery of education and training to learners resident in non-devolved areas, through ESFA funded AEB contracts for services”.
The notice includes an interesting line, suggesting the FE white paper could signal the end of the procured AEB as we know it: “Dependent on the outcome of the further education reform white paper, the ESFA may include a right to extend the contract for a limited period.”
The notice also invited providers to join a webinar this week to find out more, so here are the highlights of what they were told (with some thoughts from me in italics):
Confirmation that the contract is only guaranteed for one year, for starts from 1 August 2021 to 31 July 2022. Remains to be seen how any carry-over funding would be paid of if the contracts might be extended. I suspect the plan is to roll the national AEB into the National Skills Fund, but so far the FE White Paper and NSF consultation remains unpublished.
The AEB contract is from the ESFA so it will only fund learners that are residents of a shrinking number of non-devolved areas. Unfortunate postcode lottery with this contract and makes the ESFA attempt at coverage across England somewhat futile
Traineeships are excluded from this procurement. Only providers with an AEB grant allocation (such as colleges) and those part of the currently delayed traineeship procurement exercise will have access to traineeship funding in 2021/22. However, the ESFA has not ruled out a market entry exercise for 16 to 18 traineeships in the future.
The ESFA has listed their priority courses for this AEB tender in the slide below. This list is as expected as it is everything AEB already funds but on the webinar the ESFA said they were particularly keen to see tenders with bids to deliver eligible first full level 3 qualifications for those aged 24 and over (see Lifetime Skills Guarantee below) and SWAPs. You can find out more about SWAPs here. It is also interesting that they have included a bullet point in the slide below for basic digital skills, which is not a statutory entitlement but is something the ESFA now call a ‘digital entitlement’ to fully-funded (free) courses through the AEB, limited to the new Essential Digital Skills Qualifications (EDSQ).
The AEB tender would include funding from the National Skills Fund for the level 3 Lifetime Skills Guarantee which would be ring fenced. This means if a provider had a contract for £1m, then some of this (say £200k) could only be used for the level 3 Lifetime Skills Guarantee. If, for example they delivered £1m but only £50k was for the level 3 Lifetime Skills Guarantee then they would only be paid £850k, despite delivering £1m. Ring fencing this way is useful to try and make sure providers hit targets but can be controversial and complex as funding cannot be moved between the pots within the same contract. This unusual ring fence within an AEB contract has also probably come about owing to the Lifetime Skills Guarantee funding actually coming from Treasury via a National Skills Funding allocation. Was interesting that the ESFA, rightly, called it an extension to the existing AEB level 3 entitlement and do not actually refer to it as the “Lifetime Skills Guarantee” in their slide below.
Providers will need to be demonstrate a track record and ability to deliver online. This is perhaps an obvious requirement given the current circumstances but has not been used in past tenders and may cause concern from some providers. It also signals that a large online based provider could do well in this tender, delivering courses to residents in all the non-devolved areas of England
The ESFA says one of the “objectives” is to “reduce the number of direct contracts we fund”. It remains unclear why or how this will be done. All other things being equal we would expect there to be fewer contracts given pot has shrunk (devolved areas excluded and no traineeships – see below). But it could be that they are signalling a move to use a fairly high minimum contract level as part of the tender.
Subcontracting is allowed based on the rules at the time. Rules which may change. The ESFA has consulted on ways to limit and increase quality of subcontracting but as at today, not actually changed the rules. They have signalled in the AEB rules they want to see less of it even if the rules have not changed. It is expected the FE White Paper will say the same thing about the need to limit and increase quality of subcontracting, so changes appear to have been kicked into the long grass again via a second consultation in the form of the unpublished FE white paper.
The ESFA has not finalised how winning contract values will actually be calculated and have held some funding back in case they fail to achieve geographical coverage at the first attempt. Allocating from a small pot to lots of procurement winners applying for large sums has been a controversial area in previous tenders and the ESFA has tried different approaches.
The procurement timeline has not been finalised in terms of exact dates, but the ESFA plan to publish the tender in “early February” and on the webinar they said it will be an extended application window of 6 weeks owing to the pressures on bidders that Covid has added. See ESFA slide below
Members of parliament fighting to save a land-based college have escalated the issue to prime minister Boris Johnson, after the FE Commissioner rejected multiple rescue bids.
Six Conservative MPs – including former Scottish secretary David Mundell – and former Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron have called for the prime minister to support their efforts to save Newton Rigg College in Penrith, Cumbria.
The college has been edging towards closure after FE Commissioner Richard Atkins was asked to review its provision by Newton Rigg’s parent college, Askham Bryan, which has run the site since 2011.
The review concluded in May 2020 the site was no longer financially viable, and it was announced Newton Rigg would shut this coming July, with the potential loss of 117 jobs.
This triggered action by the MPs, who have now written to Johnson: “We must secure a viable future for this educational institution,” they said in a letter, seen by FE Week.
“We would kindly ask you support us in ensuring Askham Bryan facilitate a smooth transition to a new provider and are not allowed to close the doors of Newton Rigg and leave Cumbria without an agricultural college.”
According to the letter, Newton Rigg has operated from its current site for 124 years and runs a dairy farm and a hill farm.
Students educated at Newton Rigg, the letter reads, “will be the farmers and land managers of the future”.
“This pandemic has thrown into sharp relief the importance of food security and a college such as this will be pivotal in supporting that moving forward.”
Following the commissioner’s review, the government announced in June there would be a strategic review of proposals to take over the site, again led by the FE Commissioner.
However, Atkins found neither of the bids put forward – by an organisation called the Hadrian Group and a company formed by the college’s supporters, Newton Rigg Ltd – were compliant with the criteria for the review. Askham Bryan was told to proceed with closing the site.
Newton Rigg Ltd said at the time the decision made them “deeply disappointed and frustrated the review team have rejected our proposals for the future of the college”.
Speaking after the letter to the prime minister was sent, co-author and MP for Penrith and the Border Neil Hudson said he too was “deeply saddened” by the outcome of the strategic review.
Yet the letter reveals bidders have been given a short window has been given to bidders to make their bids compliant before resubmitting them.
Hudson told FE Week this window will only last for a “matter of weeks,” and the two bidders are looking at possibly collaborating.
Newton Rigg is certainly not short of support to continue its education provision: Kendal College has said it will give advice and guidance to the parties looking to keep Newton Rigg open.
But it will not play any more part in a formal rescue package, as it has had to focus on its core provision due to local circumstances, including the impact of Covid-19.
The letter to the prime minister has been signed by Hudson, Mundell, MP for Barrow and Furness Simon Fell, MP for Westmoreland and Lonsdale Tim Farron, MP for Carlisle John Stevenson, MP for Workington Mark Jenkinson, and MP for Bishop Auckland Dehenna Davison.
They are part of a string of MPs who have criticised, and in some cases organised against, the closure of FE colleges in their constituencies.
After Cornwall College Group announced plans to close its Saltash campus, its local Conservative MP Sheryll Murray wrote to education secretary Gavin Williamson in January last year, calling for an investigation “to see if anything can be done to keep this facility available for further education provision”.
The Conservative MP for Rother Valley Alexander Stafford met with FE Commissioner Richard Atkins in February 2020 to discuss the “incredibly disappointing” decision by RNN Group to close its Dinnington campus. The college group later confirmed it would push ahead with the plans.
A DfE spokesperson said: “Colleges are independent to government. Any decision on Newton Rigg is for the college governing body to make.
“The Further Education Commissioner and Education and Skills Funding Agency continue to work closely with the local authorities, and other stakeholders to try and find a solution for retaining some education provision at Newton Rigg.”
A Downing Street spokesperson said they have received the letter and will be responding in due course.
The government has extended its free digital devices scheme to independent training providers, just days after the skills minister said they would not be included.
A Department for Education spokesperson confirmed today that private providers would soon be able to benefit from ‘Get Help with Technology’ for students aged 16 to 19 on study programmes, including traineeships, and in receipt of free meals.
Those aged 19 or over with education, health and care plans, who also receive free meals, will also be eligible.
The department is looking to invite “the majority” of eligible FE providers to order devices by before the end of January; but can only commit to inviting all eligible providers by the end of February.
Allocations will be based on the estimated number of free meals at a provider and estimates of the number of devices providers already own.
It marks an apparent reversal of policy: minister Gillian Keegan controversially told an FE Week webcast on Monday independent providers would not be included in the scheme, partly owing to how many of their students are on part-time, rather than full-time courses.
Gillian Keegan
Apprentices will not be included in this expansion, it has been confirmed today, after Keegan said: “Their employers are responsible for their technology.”
The ‘Get Help with Technology’ programme includes a £400 million government investment in delivering laptops and tablets to disadvantaged young people who are learning remotely.
The DfE announced in December that 16 to 19 students at schools and colleges would soon be included in the distribution of devices.
Commenting on the expansion to ITPs, Association of Employment and Learning Providers managing director Jane Hickie called it a “very welcome development after the minister’s comments on Monday”.
Hickie had criticised Keegan’s remarks as “passing the buck to the employer,” but she said today that inviting independent providers would be especially welcomed by those disadvantaged students.
“The government’s response should be geared to meeting the needs of all disadvantaged young learners and definitely not according to the type of provider who is offering the learning or the type of learning,” she added.
It follows a chaotic start to the spring term which saw the closure of schools and colleges to most students, the government insisting that all January vocational and technical qualification (VTQ) exams should still go ahead before backtracking and placing the decision in the hands of college leaders.
Williamson’s letter explained that given the disruption, it is “no longer viable” for written VTQ exams scheduled in February and March to go ahead.
However, where these assessments enable a student to “demonstrate the proficiency required to enter directly into employment, are needed to complete an apprenticeship, or assessments are available ‘on-demand’ such as functional skills or English as a Second Language (ESOL)”, they should “continue to proceed with protective measures put in place to ensure they are conducted in line with PHE measures”.
“This is to ensure these students can continue to progress fairly with their studies or into employment and employers are assured that students have reached the necessary level of occupational skill,” the letter added.
MPs on the education select committee this morning questioned why the DfE allowed all VTQ exams to go ahead in January but not in February and March.
Williamson did not give a clear answer regarding written exams, but said: “With a lot of technical and vocational qualifications there is almost a license to practice that many youngsters have to have. If they are not able to gain and demonstrate that competency level in the area they are working in it can often create a barrier for them to enter the place of work.
“We took the decision that it would be best to have a permissive approach where we were able to let colleges make those decisions that they know their students best.”
He added that “about a third of colleges” chose to continue with VTQ exams in January.
The Department for Education’s permanent secretary Susan Acland-Hood then stepped in to explain the reason for allowing written exams to go ahead in January but not over the next two months.
“The reason for that was because got quite strong views, not all pointing in the same direction, from the sector themselves,” she said.
“Some were saying the children are ready to sit the exams and we want to enable them to do that and others saying they should be cancelled.
“The permissive approach allowed those who wanted to sit them to go ahead and others not to.
“I think it is different when you look forward to February and March where you have got the ability to plan and you do not have the same situation of children literally being on the point of taking a qualification as the decision was taken.”
Ofqual’s upcoming consultation on summer exam replacements is expected to put forward proposals for awarding grades to VTQ learners unable to sit their assessments.
Association of Colleges chief executive David Hughes said: “The decision to cancel written exams in February and March is a good one, but so is the priority given to ensuring that assessments can go ahead when safe for students taking competency-based assessment including apprenticeships.
“The letters helpfully highlight the challenge of completing college-based programmes in areas key to economic recovery such as construction and where students need to to practise their skills before taking assessment.
“Those students will need to return to college at the earliest opportunity, once it is safe to do so, to complete their training and be ready for the assessment which unlocks job opportunities.”
Toby Perkins, Labour’s shadow apprenticeships and lifelong learning minister, said: “Labour has called for BTEC and other vocational exams to be cancelled, so it’s welcome that the government finally has bowed to the inevitable and cancelled February and March assessments.
“Sadly, Gavin Williamson’s U-turn has come too late for thousands of worried learners, alongside school and college staff who were placed in an incredibly difficult situation over whether to go ahead with January exams.
“The government’s indecision has now created a divide between those students who did January exams and others, creating further confusion for students and colleges. Gavin Williamson must urgently set out how these qualifications will be awarded and stop treating BTEC and vocational students as an afterthought.”
Trade unions and sector representative bodies have combined forces to call on the government to prioritise education staff in the second phase of Covid-19 vaccinations.
The organisations, including the Association of Colleges, the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, Sixth Form Colleges Association and the University and College Union, have today co-signed a letter to health secretary Matt Hancock, education secretary Gavin Williamson and vaccinations minister Nadhim Zahawi.
It comes after FE Week reported a growing opinion among college leaders that further education staff ought to be prioritised for the jab in order to fully reopen safely.
The letter asks ministers to “urgently consider raising the priority level for all staff in early years, school, college, adult education, and independent training provider settings to receive the Covid-19 vaccination”.
It goes on to outline the case for prioritising education staff in the second phase of vaccinations, which will start once care home residents, frontline health and social care workers, extremely clinically vulnerable people, and all those aged over 70 are vaccinated by around the spring.
“Fully reopening education settings is a national priority, the moment it is safe to do so,” the letter highlights, adding that learning often takes place indoors, in close contact, with large numbers of students in multiple groups, which puts staff “at high risk of both catching and transmitting the virus”.
Prioritising them for vaccination, combined with mass testing, “would be a sure way to reduce transmissions, remove any further disruption to the education of our young people and to support the resumption of economic activity by reducing the burden of home schooling on working parents”.
The letter further suggests a sub-group of education staff – those working in early years, specialist settings and those whose role involves elements of health care and very close contact – should be the first of their number to be vaccinated.
Association of Colleges chief executive David Hughes said: “The strength of feeling from all voices within the education sector on vaccinating teachers and education staff could not be clearer.
“Today’s letter is a sign that prioritising vaccinations for teachers and staff who work in education is the best way to support the national effort to reopen all education settings as soon as it is safe to do so.”
University and College Union general secretary Jo Grady said: “The government was right to belatedly move teaching online at colleges last week as part of the new lockdown.
“But college staff and students have too often been treated as an afterthought during the Covid pandemic.
“Any safe return to in-person teaching in colleges must include a commitment to prioritise offering the vaccine to college staff.”
The letter has been signed by the AoC, ASCL, AELP, HOLEX, Landex, Natspec, SFCA, Early Years Alliance and GMB UCU, Unison, Unite and NEU.
Mathematics comes in handy for answering questions about a variety of topics, from calculating the cost-effectiveness of fuel sources and determining the best regions to build high-speed rail to predicting the spread of disease and assessing costs and benefits of repurposing squandered food. Seeing the value and usefulness of applying math to problems in the world is a huge take-away for participants in MathWorks Math Modeling (M3) Challenge.
“Participating in M3 Challenge opened my eyes to fields in applied math that I didn’t know about before. It allowed me to consider new career possibilities and helped me to work well within a team and under pressure. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever done before,” says Eric Chai, member of the 2019 champion team from High Technology High School in New Jersey. “Another teammate and I did the Challenge both years that we were eligible. That just shows how valuable we think it is. It allows us to do what we love–math and STEM–and apply it to a real-world competition. Winning recognizes our effort and it means a lot.”
M3 Challenge is an annual applied math modeling competition that encourages the use of online collaboration tools and resources. A program of Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) that is funded by leading technical computing software developer MathWorks, M3 Challenge motivates students to study and pursue careers in applied mathematics, computational science, and technical computing. It has been a virtual competition since its inception in 2006.
An opportunity your math students won’t miss out on this year
While many extracurricular activities are being cancelled due to the inability to hold them safely, M3 Challenge is one competition that promises not to disappoint. It’s virtual, free, and is awarding £75,000+ in scholarships to talented math students in the UK and United States! Registration is open until February 19.
“SIAM does a big service to the math community by giving students the opportunity to see how math is more than just a series of formulas and rote memorization,” says Dr. Karen Bliss, director of M3 judging and associate professor of applied mathematics at Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Virginia. “M3 Challenge allows students to produce highly creative solutions to interesting problems, and to see that math can be a powerful tool for solving truly important problems. Sometimes their participation in the competition is enough to encourage them to study math or another STEM discipline at university.”
David Stein is a teacher at Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Springs, Maryland who has coached multiple finalist teams in M3 Challenge. When asked how teachers can influence students to study and pursue STEM careers, demonstrate the interdisciplinary nature of the studies, and see the impact that working with math and science can have on the students, their communities, and the world, he suggested the following: 1) base rigorous lessons on real-world issues and problems; 2) focus students’ attention on communication and writing; and 3) provide opportunities like M3 Challenge for them to showcase their work.
Challenge weekend is February 26 through March 1, 2021—students choose their 14-hour stretch
Working in small teams for 14 consecutive hours during Challenge weekend, students devise a solution to a real-world problem using mathematical modeling. Of the hundreds of participating teams, up to nine will be selected as finalists, and will share a large portion of the more than $100,000 (~£79,000) in scholarship prizes available (there are 37 monetary prizes total). Finalist teams are invited to an all-expense paid trip to New York City for the final event, which is scheduled for April 26, 2021. The top-ranking team in all of England and Wales will be invited to participate in the final event, all expenses paid, regardless of their overall ranking. (Disclaimer: COVID-19 implications are likely to cause this event to become virtual.)
“One thing that surprised me a lot about M3 Challenge is the amount of thinking involved,” says Jonathan Zhang, a student at White Station High School in Memphis, Tennessee, whose team was a 2020 Runner-Up. “Throughout the day, we were constantly running into obstacles when trying to create models for each problem, but within 14 hours, we were able to transform our abstract ideas into statistically backed predictions that made sense.”
A contest with lasting impact
M3 Challenge has had a profound impact on many of its participants, including Dr. Chris Musco, a 2008 M3 Challenge finalist who is now head of the competition’s technical computing judging and a member of the problem development committee. “Being involved in this program as a judge and using my experience and perspective to help shape the problem the students will work on is really exciting,” says Musco, assistant professor in the Tandon School of Engineering at New York University. “M3 Challenge changed the trajectory of my college major and career, and it’s great to play a part in doing that for the students who are participating now.”
Intense judging—and constructive feedback to teams on their work
Submissions are judged by an international panel of 150 primarily Ph.D.-level mathematicians, and almost every team receives specific feedback on their submission from the judges who read their papers during rigorous assessments.
Judges look forward to seeing creative, outside the box approaches to predicting, quantifying, and/or providing insight into the Challenge problem, which is unknown until teams download it on Challenge weekend. “The questions can be approached in a variety of ways depending on students’ skills and experiences,” says problem development committee member and judge Dr. Katie Kavanagh of Clarkson University in Potsdam, New York. “For example, participants may use simulation and programming, probability and statistics, or even algebra and basic math to model aspects of the open-ended problem. We are always eager to see how the students approach the issue,” says Kavanagh. “They offer unique perspectives on what factors are important to consider, particularly at that critical, transitional time in their own lives and influenced by their unique circumstances.”
Past competition topics have had students address issues such as the transition of trucking from diesel to electric, substance abuse, food insecurity, plastic recycling, and car sharing.
Learn more and register
Interested students, teachers, and parents can review how the contest works, the rules, and see some great ways to prepare for success using free resources and sample problems at M3Challenge.siam.org.
“Every year without fail, we hear from students who refer to their participation in M3 Challenge as a transformative experience that helped open their eyes to how important, useful, and valuable the application of mathematics can be,” said Michelle Montgomery, M3 Challenge program director at SIAM. “I am confident that this year’s Challenge will do the same.”
Since 2006, M3 Challenge has awarded more than $1.5 million in scholarships.
Registration is open until February 19, 2021. The competition will take place February 26 to March 1, 2021.For more information and to register, visit http://m3challenge.siam.org.
Almost 50 colleges set to deliver T Levels from 2021 will share £48.5 million to refurbish their buildings.
Successful projects include a new civil engineering centre at the Lakes College in Cumbria, and a brand new teaching block at Burnley College that will include classrooms, an elite athlete gym and a sports therapy space.
The £48.5 million being dished out today comes from the £95 million capital pot set aside for wave two T Level providers. The remaining funding has been held back to allocate to providers so they can upgrade specialist equipment. The government expect to confirm amounts for equipment for each provider in February.
The government has also today launched a new £135 million capital fund for providers offering T Levels from 2023 (click here for full story).
The first three T Levels – the technical equivalent to A-levels – in construction, digital and education and childcare were launched in September 2020.
A further seven will be available from 2021 in subjects including health, science and onsite construction and subjects including finance, media and legal will be introduced from 2022 and 2023.
A total of 49 colleges have been awarded a slice of the capital funding announced today, which between them bid for 56 projects.
The DfE has not released the values of each allocation.
Education secretary Gavin Williamson has this morning outlined his expectation for how exams will be replaced this year.
In a letter to exams regulator Ofqual, he said that grades should be issued “as late as possible”, with teacher assessments only changed as apart of the moderation process in the “exception”, and wants the idea of externally set exams to be explored.
His letter outlining the process to decided alternative arrangements for exams, which also includes vocational and technical qualifications, can be read here.
Ofqual has also published a responding letter from its chief regulator Simon Lebus, which can be read here.
Teacher assessments should be informed by ‘breadth of evidence’ …
Williamson said he wants to support teachers to assess their students in a “fair and consistent fashion. A breadth of evidence should inform teachers’ judgements, and the provision training and guidance will support teachers to reach their assessment of a student’s deserved grade”.
He’s asked this is “drawn out in the consultation”.
… But plans must ‘minimise additional burden’
Ofqual has been told this need for evidence must be balanced against minimising additional burdens for teachers and schools and colleges.
“It is my view that the consultation should set out proposals which allow students to be assessed based on what they have learnt, rather than against content they have not had a chance to study,” Williamson said.
“This will need to be balanced against the need to ensure good enough coverage of the curriculum for all students to support successful progress.”
Grades to be issued “as late as possible”
Williamson said it is “vital we maximise the remaining opportunity for them to be taught for as long as possible, so they have every opportunity to catch up.
“It is my view that a teacher’s final judgement on a student’s grade ought to be as late as possible in the academic year to maximise remaining teaching time and ensure students are motivated to remain engaged in education,” he added.
Ofqual agrees. Lebus said doing so will “give students a greater sense of agency, which is critical to securing widespread acceptance of the outcomes”.
Ofqual to explore setting external exams
The education secretary has also asked the exams regulator to explore the “possibility of providing externally set tasks or papers, in order that teachers can draw on this resource to support their assessments of students”.
“We should seek views in the consultation on what broader evidence should determine a teacher’s assessment of a student’s grade and whether we should require or recommend the use of the externally set tasks or papers,” he added.
Ofqual is in favour of this. Lebus told Williamson: “We know that the more the evidence comes from students’ performance in externally set papers, the fairer and more consistent teachers’ assessments are likely to be, because all students are given the chance to show what they can do in the same way.”
Warning over results ‘looking different’ to previous years
When exams were going ahead, Ofqual had pledged that results would be as generous as those issued last year. However the new plan seems to have changed that.
Lebus warned it was “important that the consultation makes clear to all, especially those who rely on the results to make selection decisions, that overall outcomes this year will likely look different from 2020 and previous years”.
He said told Williamson this will be “important for your work with the post-16 and higher education sectors to secure orderly progression and to protect the interests of disadvantaged students”.
But definitely no algorithm
As already announced, there will be no algorithm to standardise grades.
Instead, Williamson wants schools and colleges to undertake quality assurance of their teachers’ assessments and “provide reassurance to the exam boards”.
“We should provide training and guidance to support that, and there should also be external checks in place to support fairness and consistency between different institutions and to avoid schools and colleges proposing anomalous grades.”
Any grade changes should ‘be the exception’
After the fallout of last year’s algorithm, where 40 per cent of teacher grades were marked down, Williamson now wants any changes to grades as a result of quality assurance to “be the exception”.
He added: “The process will not involve second-guessing the judgement of teachers but confirming that the process and evidence used to award a grade is reasonable. Changes should only be made if those grades cannot be justified, rather than as a result of marginal differences of opinion.
“Any changes should be based on human decisions, not by an automatic process or algorithm.”
There will also be an appeals route
Williamson said there should be a route for any student who doesn’t believe their grade reflects the standard of their work to appeal, details of which should be “explored fully” in the consultation.
He also said a plan needs to be developed for private candidates – such as home schooled children – to get a grade.
International Baccalaureate ‘should be same’ as GCSEs
Williamson said he believes other general qualifications, such as core maths and the International Baccalaureate, should have a similar approach to GCSEs and A-levels.
Alternative arrangements for BTECs and other vocational quals
External exams scheduled to take place in the next few months for vocational and technical qualifications students that enable a student to demonstrate the proficiency required to enter directly into employment should “continue to proceed with protective measures put in place to ensure they are conducted in line with PHE measures”.
However, for all other VTQs with written exams, including BTECs and other vocational qualifications in league tables, it is “no longer viable for these exams to go ahead” in February and March and views on alternative arrangements for these qualifications “should be sought in the consultation”.
All Janaury VTQ exams can go ahead where providers “judge it is right to do so”, as previously announced.
Williamson added that functional skills assessments can continue to take place online, but if students are unable to access the tests in this way, there “should be alternative assessment arrangements put in place following the outcomes of the consultation”.
Williamson also said that VTQs for April onwards will need to have “alternative arrangements to examined assessments and that we should use this consultation to seek views on the detail of these arrangements and the qualifications in scope of this approach.
“These arrangements may need to be different in some cases to those put in place last year to take account of the different circumstances.”
As reported previously by FE Week, Ofqual has indicated that the grading solution for VTQs is unlikely to be consistent with GCSEs and A-levels. Lebus’ letter today reiterated that “our starting point is that we cannot prescribe a single approach” to VTQs.
