In Post-16 Educator 104 http://post16educator.org.uk/ Created to replace the Higher School Certificate in 1951 and with only 3% of the cohort sitting them, A-levels continued to be elite or ‘gold standard’ qualifications, educationally narrow, with universities having a major influence over their syllabus content. Until 1953 A-levels were only graded as pass or fail, at […]
Eleven organisations including most of the teacher unions and the NUS have issued a statement warning of government plans to cut funding for vocational qualifications that overlap with the new T-levels. In particular there’s concern about the future of the tried and trusted BTEC qualifications. Of course the old-style teacher assessed BTEC qualifications no longer […]
With the ‘Lost Generation’ now being superseded by the ‘Covid Generation’, I’ve rewritten the 2012 E-book ‘Why young people can’t get the jobs they want or the education they need’ Download the latest version
Until relatively recently, discussion about an alternative curriculum for 14-19, the upper secondary years bloomed, with a variety of initiatives promoting either ‘over-arching’ certificates to link and equate academic and vocational learning, or even their full integration in a general diploma. Yet maybe a certain weariness was already creeping in, not helped by the fact […]
Read my contribution Another round of vocational qualifications won’t create good jobs along with other critiques of the Further Education White Paper in the latest edition of Post 16 Educator http://www.post16educator.org.uk Download Martin Allen & Patrick Ainley’s Skills without Jobs? The Further Education White Paper and beyond
