14 TO 19 EDUCATION


The government has not backed them, but students are still


studying the qualification. Education policy expert Sue Kirkham asks where now for the Diploma?


F


OLLOWING THE change of government last year, the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) welcomed the simplification of the Diploma process which was quickly introduced by our new ministers. The disappearance of the entitlement


for students to all levels of Diploma across all lines of learning was mourned by few and the removal of the gateway process and the obligation to co-operate were also welcomed by most of our members. They told us that they were relieved to be able to


offer only those Diplomas which were popular with their students and manageable in terms of resources and staffing. In addition, they could revert to working with those other institutions where collaboration had proved successful, rather than it being imposed upon them. The removal of central support and additional


funding caused more concern since it was always going to be more expensive to run Diplomas than other general qualifications and employers, parents and others needed the centrally based marketing provided. However, students and staff were enjoying Diploma


learning, employers were positive about the skills being developed in the students, and the first round of students applying to universities with their Advanced Diplomas were successful in gaining places on degree courses. In the early autumn of 2010, we were reasonably


positive that Diplomas, while never likely to become the “qualification of choice” as envisaged by the previous government, would stand a good chance of


survival as a response to a particular gap, meeting both the needs of employers in certain areas and the needs and interests of students who favoured a more practical approach to learning. Unfortunately, in the months since then, the


qualifications scene has changed yet again. We were promised freedom from central control and an open qualifications market in which qualifications could sink or swim on their own merits. This is not what we are seeing now. Yet another government is using performance tables to drive schools and colleges in particular directions, with disregard for the educational value to students. So schools immediately imagine that they must


take steps to change their curriculum lest they be found wanting and year 9 students are being persuaded to drop the arts, technology, design, engineering or other options which they passionately wanted to take in favour of the English Baccalaureate. How this set of qualifications will enable them to take up the careers which this country needs them to follow or even to achieve places at selective universities has not been explained to them. We are constantly being told that England is


underperforming in comparison with other countries but we seem to be unique in our willingness to change our qualification system to suit the whim of ministers. Consequently our qualifications rarely have time to bed in and undergo thoughtful development before they are


The Diploma: sink or swim?


swept aside as a remnant of a previous government or even a previous minister. This is not the way to educate our young people for their future lives and careers. How many people are there now in their 20s or 30s


who have qualifications on their CV unrecognisable to all but the most clued up employer? Will Diplomas go the same way? It seems probable if they are left to a market place where rewards are offered to schools which move away from them. For colleges, the picture is as yet less clear as


we await the government’s full response to the Wolf Review, published this week (see page 2), but it seems unlikely that either schools or colleges will be pushing Diplomas to the fore this year either to year 9s or 11s until there is more certainty about the future. Rarely have so much time, effort and money been


devoted to the development of a new qualification as had gone into the Diploma – and for what return? They are complex and costly qualifications which


are difficult to justify for a school or college at a time of budget cuts and the removal of dedicated funding. And yet they have (eventually) been welcomed by


universities, were developed with the full involvement of employers, and are being enjoyed by students and teachers. They appear to be developing exactly those skills of


independent thought, team-working, problem-solving and analysis which employers and universities are constantly telling us that young people need. It would be an appalling waste of public money if


the resources poured into them were wasted. At the very least the Principal Learning curriculum could be used as a basis for a more manageable set of practical alternative general qualifications. ASCL has long campaigned for a real English


Baccalaureate, one which rewards students who follow a truly rounded education, gaining knowledge and skills and displaying these, not just academically but also within the community and in work-based situations, a qualification which can be gained at different levels which help learners to understand where their strengths lie and what they need to achieve to progress to the next level. Perhaps the time is now right for us to take matters into our own hands and ASCL is working with other partners to do just that with the Better Baccalaureate campaign.


SecEd


• Sue Kirkham is education policy specialist with the Association of School and College Leaders.


Further information A Better Bacc Campaign: www.abetterbaccalaureate.org


Principal Learning in Sport and Active Leisure


VTCT is the only specialist awarding body that will be offering Principal Learning in Sport and Active Leisure at levels 1, 2 and 3 in September 2011.


Working closely with Skills Active it has been specially written against the qualification framework.


Our Principal Learning clearly aligns with Functional Skills enabling learners to develop the skills needed for the sport and active leisure environment.


To find out more or to arrange a free visit from one of our qualification experts, please contact customerservice@vtct.org.uk


Email: customerservice@vtct.org.uk Web: www.vtct.org.uk Call: 02380 684 500


SecEd • March 10 2011


13


SPECIALIST awarding body www.vtct.org.uk


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