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Analysis: Diplomas and A-levels
By Julie Nightingale
In September 2008, teaching will start on the first five specialised diplomas, the new qualification bridging the gap between academic and vocational study. They will cover:
construction and the built environment
creative and media
engineering
information technology
society, health and development.
Further diploma lines, in areas such as business, manufacturing and public services, will follow in phases two and three.
So far, so practical: applied, employment-related learning has always been seen as a defining feature of the new qualification.
However, the Secretary of State for Education, Ed Balls, recently announced the creation of three more diplomas in humanities, languages and science – all traditional academic subject areas.
Why the change?
It’s partly an attempt to dissuade universities from the view that diplomas are a second-class qualification. Significantly, academics from Cambridge, Leeds and Exeter universities lined up alongside Mr Balls when he made the announcement and they will be involved in developing the content of each diploma.
Geoff Parks, director of undergraduate admissions at Cambridge University said: “The university strongly welcomes any moves that will encourage young people to study the sciences, maths and modern languages in particular at a higher level.”
But it’s also being interpreted as a sign that ministers’ insistence that A-levels are untouchable is beginning to crumble.
As Prime Minister, Tony Blair rejected the proposal in the Tomlinson 14-19 review to merge A-levels into a diploma in the style of the International Baccalaureate. Blair was said to be wary of the reaction of the aspirational parents of ‘middle England’ if A-levels were dropped as the academic ‘gold standard’. The Gordon Brown Government is thought to be more open to radical change.
That said, a planned review of A-levels, scheduled for 2008, has been put back to 2013 to give diplomas a chance to bed down.
What will the new diplomas entail?
Like the other diplomas, they will guarantee a core of functional skills in English, Maths and ICT. Subject content will “incorporate the best of existing GCSE and A-Levels qualifications,” says the DCFS, “along with new specially-designed content developed by a group of leading academics and employers.”
A new diploma development partnership will begin work early in 2008 to draw up content for all three diplomas. One of the partnership’s advisors will be Sir Mike Tomlinson who led the original 14-19 review. Academics from Cambridge, Leeds and Exeter universities will also be involved as will the business body, the CBI.
Cambridge has already had a hand in developing the engineering diploma with the goal of ensuring that it will be a suitably rigorous qualification for entry into higher education.
What do teachers think?
There are mixed feelings.
A spokesman for CILT, the national centre for languages, said a new languages diploma would “help build a wider range of options for fourteen to nineteen-year-olds” although the association was still keen to see a place for languages within the other diploma qualifications “”in order to ensure that languages can be learnt in combination with other economically valuable skills such as technology and engineering.”
Mick Brookes, General Secretary NAHT said that the new diplomas and the decision to delay the review of ‘A’ levels to 2013 was “very good news.”
But there is also concern about the impact organising for the extra diplomas is likely to have on schools and colleges.
Brookes pointed to “real problems with the logistics and funding of the diplomas,” though “but solutions are much easier to find when the education community is working together to the same end.”
Adding three more diplomas to the 14 already under construction by 2011 will be “a huge programme for an education system that is punch-drunk with change in recent years,” added John Dunford, General Secretary of the ASCL.
Are there any other problems?
Researchers at Oxford University and the Institute of Education at the University of London reported recently that diplomas generally are likely to be seen as “second-class” until A-levels are reformed.
They also said the timetable for launching diplomas – the first will be taught from September 2008 – is unrealistic and leaves too little time for teacher professional development.
When do the three new diplomas start?
They will be available to students from 2011.
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