Pepe Di’Iasio, General Secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders,comments on the government’s plans to introduce new Vocational GCSEs.
“Reshaping and rebadging vocational and technical qualifications is well-intentioned but will not in itself address the barriers to more young people taking these subjects. Reform needs to be accompanied by a strategy to ensure that schools have the staffing and resources to deliver them, and a campaign to raise public awareness of vocational and technical routes. We’re pleased to see that the government intends to adjust school performance measures to reflect these new qualifications but it is essential that this change genuinely provides flexibility between vocational and academic pathways.
“Without this wider action, revamping qualifications will simply mean more upheaval and workload for hard-pressed schools, without actually achieving the objective of boosting vocational and technical pathways. We would also question why it is necessary to call these qualifications Vocational GCSEs, when genuine parity of esteem would be better served by simply calling them GCSEs, in line with existing academic qualifications.
“Schools will welcome the launch of a national mission to source work experience opportunities for young people. These placements are often extremely difficult to secure and more support from employers is badly needed to give young people the invaluable opportunity to gain real-world workplace experience.”