Rethink urged on diplomas

Jun 24 2008 by Sarah Green, The Journal

FOLLOWING extensive consultation with businesses across the country, the CBI is urging the Government to think again about its plans for a new wave of academic diplomas, and concentrate on making sure GCSEs and A-levels give young people the skills and knowledge to succeed.

Employers have consistently backed the Government’s sector related diplomas, eg in hospitality or engineering, as a parallel qualification to GCSEs and A-levels. They were created with substantial business input and retain the strong support of employers.

However, employers are worried about the more recent proposals in the Government’s diploma strategy to introduce a new range of academic diplomas in humanities, languages and sciences.

CBI members fear they would not have any greater value to young people or to employers than the existing GCSEs or A-levels, and would instead be an unnecessary distraction.

The CBI is fully committed to supporting the following priorities – improving school leavers’ basic skills, continuing to enhance GCSEs and A-levels, and making sure the more vocational, sector-specific diplomas are a real success.

The CBI is keen to work with the Government to ensure the business community understands the diploma grading system properly. It is urging policy-makers to streamline the number of levels of diploma to two, rather than increase it from three to seven. There is a real risk that seven different levels would be confusing.

There are also concerns that the over-loaded education system could not cope with all the planned reform.

Over the next few years, schools and colleges are already being expected to manage a raft of changes. These include delivering new functional literacy and numeracy modules and new GCSE and A-level curricula, together with the extra demands of keeping young people in education or training until 18.

Going ahead with these plans without tackling concerns, employers fear, could lead to a fractured two-tier education system with private schools opting for GCSEs and A-levels, or even the International Baccalaureate, while State schools use diplomas.

In urging the Government to rethink, business recognises its role in preparing young people for the world of work by helping with high quality work experience (75% of employers already do so), attending careers fairs (49%) and giving lectures, talks and after-school clubs (49%).