INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION EDUCATION SYSTEMS Assessing global
Guidance for employers and relocating parents
Navigating school choice and education support is a key mission for employers needing to retain their talent in relocation hotspots across the globe. As the new academic year begins, and with schools and pupils celebrating exam results, from the IB to GCSE, IGCSE and A Level, we look at how to help relocating families to select the right curriculum. Are exam results the way to benchmark success? How can employers ensure their employees have access to the best education information?
C
oncern about their children’s education can lead parents to refuse an international assignment or a relocation move. If they accept and the school or curriculum they’ve
chosen turns out to be the wrong fit for their child, assignment failure can result. It’s therefore in employers’ interests to have an understanding of education issues, so they can help parents make informed choices. Employers also need knowledge of education in the countries and
regions in which they operate so that they can assess job candidates’ suitability for the role they have applied for.
Celebrating exam results Over the summer, pupils have received the results of GCSE, IGCSE, A Level and International Baccalaureate (IB) exams. Recent reforms to both GCSE and A Level have inevitably seen teething troubles, but employers will welcome the increase in entries in A Level STEM subjects and the proportion of top grades awarded in French, German and Spanish at A Level.
Box Hill School International GCSE (IGCSE) has been a popular choice among
independent schools, with ten times as many international schools worldwide offering the IGCSE as the GCSE, according to ISC Research. Taken in over 145 countries and more than 4,800 schools around the world, Cambridge IGCSE is the world’s most popular international qualification for 14- to 16-year-olds. Each year, there are over 800,000 subject entries for Cambridge IGCSE exams. Explains a spokesman for Cambridge International Examinations,
“The main difference between UK GCSE and Cambridge IGCSE is that our syllabuses are designed for an international context. This means that they avoid cultural bias and the questions are designed to be accessible to those who are not native English speakers. So, for example, we make sure we are testing content knowledge, not English-language skills, in a history exam, and we wouldn’t include a case-study question about a situation that would only be familiar to students in certain countries.” The IGCSE is regarded as similar in style and rigour to the
old O Level, offering a more academically challenging option than the GCSE. With recent reforms to the GCSE system in England, however, this is set to change. Since 2015, the government has made sweeping changes to GCSEs to address issues such as grade inflation. More information can be found on the Relocate website. At the same time as GCSEs have been reformed, A Levels have
also undergone substantial change. They have been decoupled from AS Levels to become standalone qualifications once more, with less coursework and an emphasis on examinations at the end of the two years of study. However, this year’s results have drawn criticism from
headteachers, as they appear to show that it is much harder to get an A or A* grade in the 13 newly reformed A Levels than in
46 | Re:locate | Autumn 2017
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