Called Technical Awards, the ambition is to create qualifications with “employer value” that offer “real-life practical and technical skills”. The idea is that students will be able to study up to three Technical Awards alongside a minimum of five core GCSEs. They are to be available from September 2015.
The Technical Awards are also to have a higher requirement for external assessment than existing vocational qualifications, with the courses to be developed alongside employers.
The government says that this is the final stage of its 14 to 16 vocational reforms following Professor Alison Wolf’s report into vocational education in 2011. It describes the reforms as creating a new pathway for students – starting with the Technical Awards, leading onto the previously unveiled career-linked, Level 3 Tech Levels at 16 to 19, and then onto advanced Apprenticeship, university or employment.
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