House of Commons - Public Accounts

Select Committee on Public Accounts Thirty-Ninth Report

1 Giving all young people access to Diplomas

1. Seventeen year olds in the UK are less likely to continue in education and training than their peers in most comparable countries (Figure 1). While academic results have been improving, some 40% of 16 year olds still do not gain at least the equivalent of five GCSEs at grades A* to C. In 2006, the Leitch Review of Skills warned that these trends would make it increasingly difficult for UK businesses to compete internationally. Some young people are more motivated by learning that is related to the workplace, but vocational education tends to be less esteemed in the UK than some comparable countries.[2]

Figure 1: Participation rate of 17 year olds in education and training in the UK remains below international levels

Participation rates (per cent) at age 17 (2002-2005)

Source: OECD Education statistics (September 2007)

2. The Department for Children, Schools and Families (the Department) has developed the 14-19 education reform programme to encourage greater participation and higher achievement in education and training up to the age of 19. The new Diploma qualifications are central to these reforms, blending academic and vocational learning across 14 different broad occupational areas. In October 2007, the Department also announced three subject-based Diplomas in Science, Languages and the Humanities, to be available in parts of England from 2011. While the Diplomas in 14 occupational areas will not lead directly to a job, they aim to give young people a better understanding of what it would be like to work in, for example, engineering or hotels and hospitality. The Diplomas will be available at three different levels. UCAS[3] has announced that the highest level of Diploma will be equivalent to three and a half A levels. The Department aims to make all Diplomas available to young people across England by 2013, and has estimated that up to 25% of young people will take at least one Diploma either singly or alongside other qualifications such as GCSEs.[4]

3. The 14-19 education reforms are not limited to the introduction of Diplomas. The Government is introducing legislation to raise the age of compulsory participation in education and training to 18, starting with a rise to age 17 in 2013. All learning should include practical skills in English, maths and information and communications technology that educators and employers consider essential to success in learning and employment. The Department also aims to increase the take-up of apprenticeships and to extend the content of A levels so as to stretch the most able young people.[5]

4. Diplomas should be available to all young people, no matter where they live, and are being introduced in phases between 2008 and 2013. In spring 2007, 149 consortia were approved to provide almost 39,000 places across the first five Diploma subjects from September 2008, which would provide a place for just over 1% of young people in England. In May 2008, the Department announced that the estimated number of students who would be starting Diplomas in September 2008 had halved to about 20,000, and cited a focus on quality of provision as the reason for the change.[6] Unlike most existing qualifications for young people, it will not be possible for a single institution to provide all 14 Diplomas to the required level of quality. To provide a means for local education providers and others, for example employers, to work together to provide the Diplomas, each local authority has established a 14-19 strategic partnership.[7]

5. In some local authority areas, the partnership is acting as a single delivery consortium, but in larger areas with some rural communities, the partnership typically oversees a number of delivery consortia. The consortia vary in their readiness to deliver the Diplomas. Over 80% of secondary schools are part of a consortium to provide the Diplomas. The National Audit Office found that a third of delivery consortia were, however, only in the early stages of implementing their 14-19 strategy. While 95% of local authority areas submitted an application to offer at least one of the five new Diplomas to be available from September 2008, the Department judged that 43% of them were not ready to do so. The most common reason given by partnerships which did not make an application to offer Diplomas was that the partnership considered that it lacked capacity or that partnership working was not yet sufficiently developed.[8]

6. The Department prefers that consortia identify the best local approach to delivering Diplomas. Nevertheless, it would be inefficient for partnerships to work in isolation to resolve practical obstacles that occur in other areas. For example, it is unlikely that schools alone can deliver all the vocational content of Diplomas. Consortia are learning from each other to help resolve logistical difficulties caused by the breadth of the curriculum, the need for access to appropriate facilities and the need for some young people to travel between institutions. For example, a consortium may try to co-ordinate timetables so that school pupils only need to travel to different sites for a complete day, so that travel does not cut into available study time.[9]

7. In many cases, young people will need to travel to colleges or other schools, employers or independent training providers while studying for a Diploma. This is likely to be a particular problem in rural areas where, for example, there may be a lack of high quality local facilities to deliver all the Diplomas. For example in Cumbria, an additional subsidy has been provided for travel, and the consequences for the curriculum of dispersed communities have been examined. In some parts of the country, local skills centres are being established to provide vocational facilities that are unavailable in schools.[10]

8. The consortia that were approved to start one or more Diplomas from September 2008 were allocated the most support, with an extra £30,000 for each successful application. The Department's assessment suggested that 91% of these consortia are now ready to launch the Diplomas, but at least 16 still required substantial support. The Department allocated £18,000 to consortia that received approval to start one or more Diplomas from September 2009. Consortia that did not apply to offer Diplomas in September 2008 received no additional funding. Focusing on the most advanced consortia is intended to promote a successful start for the Diplomas. This approach does, however, carry the risk that less well-established consortia will not develop quickly enough to offer all the Diplomas by 2013. The Department is addressing this risk through a light-touch approach that keeps progress under review via regular reporting and promotes the sharing of expertise through a small network of 11 advisers. Nine are in Government Offices and there are two others, one of whom specialises in rural affairs.[11]

9. Young people who take up Diplomas will require either work experience opportunities or access to facilities that simulate a work environment. The Department expects that Diplomas will place a high demand on employers, especially small businesses. The challenges for consortia to involve them will vary, for example, because certain business sectors are stronger in some parts of the country than in others. To date, employers have been more involved in developing the content of Diplomas than in influencing how they will be delivered. Over 5,000 employers have participated in Diploma Development Partnerships. For example, major IT businesses have helped develop the Information Technology Diploma so that it covers the skills that they expect to need in the future. By contrast, 45% of consortia had not yet involved local employers in developing their approach to 14-19 education, although employers are now involved in all of the consortia that are introducing Diplomas from September 2008. A National Audit Office survey in 2007 found that only 10% of consortia had a fully developed strategy for engaging employers, less than 20% had forecast future employer engagement, and two-thirds of consortia considered that there were insufficient numbers of suitable employers to meet the requirements of the Diplomas.[12]

10. To provide Diplomas to a high level of quality, institutions that are accustomed to competing with each other must collaborate in the interests of young people. For example, young people will benefit if schools and colleges cooperate on common timetables. The Wolverhampton partnership has demonstrated how an effective common timetable maximises the study options available and minimises travel time. Local collaboration works best if the contribution of all institutions is recognised, and if there are effective sanctions if an institution declines to participate in a constructive way.[13]

2 Qq 1, 68-70; C&AG's Report, paras 10, 17-20 Back

3 Formerly known as the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service, UCAS is responsible for managing applications to higher education courses in the UK Back

4 Qq 14, 34-36, 93-95; C&AG's Report, paras 1, 22; Key Facts on page 4 Back

5 Q 16; C&AG's Report, para 23, Figure 1 Back

6 Department for Children, Schools and Families press notice 2008/98, 21 May 2008 Back



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