Annex A
14-19 IMPLEMENTATION PLAN: DIPLOMAS KEY MILESTONES
SSC led DDPs have already been established and
are working to define the content of the first five Diploma lines.
These are: engineering; health and social care; ICT; creative
and media; and construction and the built environment.
The first set of learning objectives will be
produced by summer 2006:
— QCA will advise the Department for
Education and Skills (DfES) on the remaining key issues, including
assessment, grading and awarding arrangements by spring 2006.
— DfES will start communicating to
young people, parents/carers, teaching staff, employers, higher
education institutions (HEIs), and wider stakeholders about the
new specialised Diplomas in spring 2006.
— In spring 2006 DfES will provide
information to schools and colleges setting out how they can get
involved in offering the specialised Diplomas in 2008. We will
encourage centres wishing to offer the Diplomas to join the national
functional skills pilot from 2007.
— By summer 2007 awarding bodies will
have turned the content of the first five sets of Diplomas into
qualifications that can be taught.
— By September 2007 the first five
sets of Diplomas will be accredited and available in schools and
colleges that wish to offer them, so that they can plan and prepare
their curriculum and advise students about choices.
— Teaching of the first five sets of
Diplomas will begin in September 2008.
— Employers, supported by SSCs, will
need to increase capacity to deliver work experience for specialised
Diplomas, particularly focused on experience relevant to the first
five lines for 2008.
— DfES will be working with partners,
including the Learning and Skills Council (LSC), SSCs and regional
agencies, to help employers, schools, colleges and training providers
to drive up the level and quality of work placements. Education
business link organisations may be well placed to take a lead
role in delivering regional and local strategies, and the LSC
will be consulting on wider reforms of the education business
link work that it funds, including on the all-important local
brokerage role.
— HE Providers are involved in DDPs
and need to be ready to accept Diplomas towards entry to HE from
2010.
This process will be repeated for the next five
lines of specialised Diplomas (land based and environment; manufacturing;
hair and beauty; business administration and finance; and hospitality
and catering), then the final four (public services; sport and
leisure; retail; and travel and tourism):
— Skills for Business Network will
establish the next five DDPs in January 2006, and the final four
in January 2007.
— The qualifications will then be developed
by DDPs and awarding bodies for the second five Diploma lines
from April 2006 to May 2008, of which the first year is primarily
DDP content development. For the final four this same process
will run from April 2007 to May 2009.
— QCA will accredit and publish the
qualifications for the second five Diploma lines by June 2008;
and for the last four Diploma lines by June 2009. They will then
be available in schools, colleges and work-based learning providers
that wish to offer them.
— The next five Diploma lines will
first be available for teaching in September 2009 and the final
four in September 2010.
— Each Diploma line will be evaluated
rigorously over a three-year period from introduction, ready for
national entitlement from 2013.
Source: 14-19 Education and Skills Implementation
Plan [2037-2005DCL-EN], Chapter 2, pp 30-31
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