Scrapping BTECs risks leading to more young people dropping out
of education, the Association of School and College Leaders
(ASCL) warned today (Monday).
ASCL has formally responded to a government
consultation on the future of qualifications for 16-18
year olds which we are concerned will lead to the end of Applied
Generals – the most-well known of which are BTECs – to clear the
way for the government’s flagship policy of T levels.
Applied Generals are taken by around 200,000 students each year.
They are vocational qualifications which leave open to young
people the opportunity to pursue academic or technical routes
post-18.
However, the government appears minded to remove funding for
these qualifications and insist that 16-year-olds must instead
study either the academic route of A levels, or the technical
route of T levels, the first of which are due to be introduced in
September 2020.
Our consultation response says: “Forcing students down a path of
either A levels or T levels at age 16 does not give a greater
guarantee of progress towards a student’s ‘intended outcome’. On
the contrary, our view is that this risks leading to more
students dropping out of education altogether.
“Adopting a middle ground of an applied route that sits between
academic and technical routes is, in our view, likely to result
in better outcomes for the cohort at level 3 than presenting all
students with a binary choice between an academic or a technical
route.”
It also warns that scrapping BTECs could have a disproportionate
impact on students with special educational needs because 13% of
students who take Applied General qualifications have special
educational needs compared to 4% who take A levels.
And it concludes: “Consideration must also be given to the impact
of these changes on the thousands of people who have undertaken
qualifications that may now be considered worthless, or no longer
understood over time by employers.”
ASCL’s full consultation
response can be read here.
ASCL issued a joint
statement with the Sixth Form Colleges Association in
March in which we said: “Applied General qualifications are tried
and tested, and recognised by universities and employers. It
would be rash and reckless to scrap these qualifications in
favour of T levels which are untried and untested.”
