Standards in Diplomas

As I mentioned in Section 1, this was the first year in which Diplomas have been awarded. A long-standing problem of our education system has been the value accorded to vocationally-oriented qualifications for the 14–19 age range. They have tended to be judged against academic qualifications which, by their very nature, are addressing different aspects of education in very different ways. As a result the history of qualifications in England is littered with failed initiatives: the Certificate of Pre-vocational Education (CPVE), the General National Vocational Qualification (GNVQ) and vocational A levels are but a few vocational qualifications that have fallen by the wayside.

Diplomas are a serious attempt to challenge the academic/vocational dichotomy by recognising learning in applied settings and providing learners with a broader base of learning and achievement with a focus on particular lines of learning. They emphasise applied learning, and teachers and young people have indicated that this approach has been attractive and has succeeded in bringing learning to life. They have also encouraged schools, colleges and employers to work together.

As well as demonstrating prowess in their principal learning qualification learners are required to submit a project in which they have to research, analyse and synthesise information in ways that will be useful in their later careers. They also have to:

• pass functional skills qualifications in English, mathematics and ICT
• demonstrate personal learning and thinking skills
• undertake a significant period of work experience
• show depth or breadth of learning through additional and specialist l earning qualifications.

The requirement to succeed in all of these aspects results in something truly challenging that is relevant not just to the learners involved but to society as a whole.

The nature of the Diploma requires new thinking about what achievement means and the time a student needs to acquire it. Traditionally progress and achievement have been linked with the speed with which a student moves through the course and emerges with a qualification. Now out of the window goes this traditional view of one- or two-year courses with a once-and-for-all assessment at the end. For most learners, although they will have the Diploma in their sights from the beginning, the prime focus of their studies will be the constituent components. The time taken by learners to accrue all the necessary components will vary but along the way all learners will have passed milestones. The results they get on the component qualifications will give them the satisfaction of gaining recognition for the progress they are making and this will motivate them to succeed in the Diploma.

How is the regulator to approach such a new concept of challenge and achievement – new, that is, for England but in principle not so for our European counterparts where baccalaureate-style examinations have been the norm for many years? Should we apply conventional yardsticks to judge the success of the Diploma in its early days, knowing full well that it is breaking new ground with new forms of assessment and new challenges? It seems to me that not only the regulator but also society should guard against applying inappropriate criteria or expecting too much of a differently constructed qualification in its infancy.

All new qualifications have teething troubles that need to be addressed in ways that nurture its development. Ofsted has identified potential improvements that can be made in the Diploma programmes. From Ofqual’s point of view it is becoming clear that in the longer term there may need to be some simplification of the qualification’s structure if it is going to be taken by large numbers of students. Meanwhile Ofqual is working closely with the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) and QCDA to make sure that centres and awarding organisations have the central support they need to meet the significant challenge of delivering awards in 2010 in much greater numbers than in 2009.

It is government policy that all young people should remain in education and training until the age of 18. This means that young people who would otherwise have dropped out will be retained within the system. It is my view that the qualifications system – including Diplomas – has an important role to play in providing qualifications that meet the diverse needs of this new group of learners. If their aspirations are to be met we must ensure that they have access to an appropriate range of qualifications that are meaningful and valuable, and able to be ‘personalised’to meet the varied needs of individual learners.

Everyone who starts a course of study for a Diploma should be expected to complete their studies successfully. They should accrue the constituent parts over the time that they need to complete their studies successfully – an arbitrary cut-off of one or two years may be inappropriate for some students. We should emphasise the value that participants gain from having to work collectively as well as independently, from learning to evaluate their own work. In addition we must value the planning that goes into the project and the discipline needed to complete it.

As work proceeds to improve the rules and procedures underpinning the Diplomas, I would like to set out some longer-term, underlying principles as a guide for developers and to inform Ofqual’s ongoing role in regulating the Diploma:

• The design and requirements for the Diploma should be understandable to all involved (learners, teachers, employers and awarding organisations).
• The detailed regulatory rules and requirements around additional and specialist learning should be as simple as possible. Teachers and tutors should be able to use their professional judgement to shape learners’curricular choices, guided by broad principles rather than detailed rules.
• Each qualification within the Diploma should be valued as important in its own right with a title that reflects its content, without detracting from the additional value of the Diploma as a whole programme of learning.
• Learners who excel or struggle with the content of the principal learning course at one level should be able to transfer as easily as possible to another level within a line of learning.
• Ofqual must be able to assure the public that grades are comparable in graded elements and that standards are comparable across awarding organisations and lines of learning for achievement for the qualifications that comprise the Diploma.
• The responsibilities of the recognised organisations delivering Diplomas and component qualifications should be clear and Ofqual should be able to check that they deliver these responsibilities.
• The qualification should be value for money to the nation. A new qualification of this kind can be expected to have significant development costs. As it rolls out, however, the processes involved should be streamlined and administrative costs reduced.

I hope that these principles will be able to inform the future development of Diploma qualifications. Any new types of Diploma should be designed with these principles in mind and should be fully piloted before being introduced in large numbers.