Jury still out on new qualification

Questions are already being asked about the effectiveness of vocational A-levels. Neil Merrick looks at the evidence

It is nearly two years since the first students enrolled for vocational A-levels in school sixth-forms and further education colleges. The new courses, which replace advanced general national vocational qualifications (GNVQs), are an attempt by the Government to encourage more 16- to 19-year-olds to mix vocational programmes with academic subjects, as well as to promote parity of esteem between the two.

Next month, when results are announced for most of the vocational and academic A-levels which began in September 2000, students will have a better idea of exactly how they have done.

But already serious questions are being asked about the effectiveness of vocational A-levels, which are also known as advanced vocational certificates of education (AVCEs) and about their long-term future.

At the heart of the discontent is the issue of assessment. Whereas GNVQs were mostly assessed through coursework and relatively simple multiple-choice tests, students taking a 12-unit vocational A-level over two years must sit four external exams, with longer written answers, as well as submitting portfolios of work to their tutors. There is also frustration that six-unit vocational A-levels, which can be completed in one year in the same way as AS-levels, are assessed at the same level as two-year vocational programmes.

There is, therefore, no opportunity for students on vocational courses to build up to the full A-level standard over two years in the same way they can with academic subjects. In those cases, students normally sit AS-levels after one year and then move on to harder A2 courses in their second year.

"There is some regret about the changes that have taken place," says David Boatman, the headteacher of Saffron Walden County High School, which is running AVCEs in seven subjects. "The new courses are difficult for students of average ability to access. And some will find the terminal exams challenging."

Dr Ken Spours, a senior lecturer at the School of Lifelong Education at the Institute of Education, London, believes attempts to broaden the options available to post-16 students have backfired, because students with poorer GCSE scores who might have taken an advanced GNVQ are being put off the new vocational A-levels.

The Qualifications and Curriculum Authority is consulting over proposals to bring in a half-way or AS standard for vocational A-levels so that testing is on a par with academic courses. But no changes are likely until 2004, as it will take that long for the exam boards to rewrite syllabuses and introduce new assessment criteria.

"The Government has been forced to review vocational A-levels and make the assessment regime less punishing," says Dr Spours. "There have been a series of design mistakes made, which has meant that they have not been as motivating for learners as ministers wanted."

Vocational A-levels were introduced in England and Wales as part of "Curriculum 2000". They are also available in Northern Ireland but not in Scotland, which has a different post-16 system.

Whereas key skills – application of number, communication and information technology – were built into advanced GNVQ programmes, they are now taught separately and are sometimes optional.

Although Bournemouth and Poole College encourages all 16- to 19-year-olds to take key skills, Helen Crawford, the college's school liaison officer, says students no longer take them as seriously as with GNVQs. She also believes that the content of vocational A-levels is less rigorous and that the methods of assessment do not always encourage students to move on to the next topic or unit.

While there is some evidence of students mixing and matching subjects, the college tends to find more vocational students opting to take an extra traditional A-level rather than academic students moving into vocational programmes.

"It's generally one-way traffic," she says. "Academic students are more focused. Even if they have a vocational aim, they're more interested in doing three or four straight A-levels than two A-levels and a single-award vocational A-level."

In spite of the concerns over assessment, the general picture is not all doom and gloom. Accurate figures on whether more students are taking vocational A-levels than advanced GNVQs will not be available until next month, but it appears that the new courses are popular with many students and are generally accepted by higher education.

John Dunford, the general secretary of the Secondary Heads Association, sees this as a sign that we're moving closer to parity of esteem. "I think the qualification is better regarded by universities and by young people themselves. We are moving in the right direction, but we still have to battle the English disease of always regarding vocational education as second best."

Studies by the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) suggest that about 15 per cent of 16- to 19-year-olds are taking vocational A-levels – a similar percentage as studied advanced GNVQs.

According to UCAS, about 70 per cent of universities will accept solely a vocational A-level as an entry requirement for a degree course, with 92 per cent accepting one in combination with other qualifications.

Steve Porter, senior curriculum and development officer at UCAS, says universities appear to see vocational A-levels as a straight swap for the advanced GNVQ and, if anything, are keener about the way that the new qualifications are taught and assessed. "A number have said that that's particularly attractive to them," he says.

But if vocational A-levels appeal to the more able vocationally minded students, what will happen to the remainder? There are clear signs that some colleges are relaunching national diploma courses, possibly in place of vocational A-levels.

Jim Dobson, deputy general manager for qualifications development at Edexcel, the largest provider of vocational A-levels, says it is aware of the difficulties in some colleges. "The AVCE is not really meeting the needs of FE centres," he says. "More and more are turning to alternative provision, which is to do the BTEC national. They are more vocationally orientated and involve more specialist courses."