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Diplomas: Tories ready to cut all ten
Education team feels Labour’s £295m flagship qualification is flawed
Original paper headline: Tories poised to dump Diplomas
None of the Government’s Diplomas will survive in their current form if the Conservatives win the next election, The TES can reveal.
The party’s education team believes the qualification is so flawed that it is considering abolishing it completely, despite the investment of £295 million that will have been made by March.
A Conservative administration could alternatively decide to reform the Diploma or cut it free from government, leaving exam boards to make a go of it if they chose.
But party insiders are clear that it cannot be allowed to continue as it is. They have canvassed opinion from across the education world, including civil servants, exam boards, subject associations and universities and concluded that there is little support for the qualification, designed to combine practical and academic learning.
The Tories have already said they will scrap the final three Diplomas in science, languages and the humanities, which are due to come on stream in 2011.
Martin Davies, deputy head of Ashfield School, Nottinghamshire - praised by the vocational education charity Edge for its pioneering curriculum - said he believed the Conservatives were correct to rethink the whole qualification.
“We have massive reservations about Diplomas,” he said. The way they were being delivered in some schools, preventing pupils from taking wider options, was “tantamount to child abuse”.
Conservatives’ scepticism
News of the Conservatives’ lack of faith in the whole Diploma project follows ministers’ high-profile launch this month of five new Diplomas in manufacturing and product design; business administration and finance; hair and beauty; environmental and land-based studies; and hospitality.
Ian Wright, schools minister, said research showed that “top universities overwhelmingly back the Diploma”, which he called “a fantastic route into both higher education and employment”.
But the government-funded research he referred to actually showed that all the most prestigious “research intensive” universities questioned lacked high levels of support for the Diploma, and were concerned about its academic rigour.
Last week another study revealed further scepticism, as well as ignorance, among teenagers about the qualification.
The findings have only increased Conservative misgivings. But the party has been reluctant to come out openly against all Diplomas for fear of being seen as hostile to vocational qualifications.
Insiders still feel bruised that their proposals to stop vocational qualifications being counted as A-levels and GCSEs in the league tables were portrayed as an attempt to turn the clock back to a two-tier system.
John Dunford, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “Schools and colleges are putting a huge amount of work into the development of Diplomas, believing them to be an important bridge qualification between the academic and the vocational, and would be very disappointed if the Conservatives scrapped them.
“But there is certainly room for the simplification of a complex structure.”
Peter Mitchell, education director at Edge, backed the Diploma as a “good attempt” at linking academic and practical skills. While he hoped the Conservatives would not scrap it, he said it needed improving with more practical work, longer and more relevant work experience, and more employer assessment.
“I would urge them to review the Diploma and build on what is already there,” he added.
Comment (15)
surely these rumours will result in a zero take up by parents so diplomas will die out anyway!
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16:36
12 September, 2009
Paulier
They are not a political party that I have ever credited with a great deal of common sense (Rail Privatisation? Coke machines in schools?) but it seems like the Conservatives may have had an injection of intelligence. ‘’Tories poised to dump Diplomas’’ makes very interesting reading for anyone involved in delivering the New Diplomas. It’s funny after so much marketing hype to suddenly read that the Diploma is considered by the Conservative Party to be ‘’so flawed that it is considering abolishing it completely’’.
One of the key issues about the Diploma is the disparity between how the Government has marketed it and its actual content. To take the example of the Creative & Media Diploma; this, when you read the unit specs is actually a qualification far more concerned with arts administration than the hands on arts practice highlighted in the Government’s marketing. No where within its specification does it require the teaching of the practical making/performing skills essential to be a practitioner within the ‘Creative Industries’. At level 3 it will not do the job that existing National Diplomas do very well, i.e. bridge the skills/creative understanding gap between GCSE level and University arts course practice. The other issue is that the Creative & Media Diploma squeezes together Art & Design, Media and Performing Arts (currently three separate National Diplomas) therefore vastly reducing the depth at which students can explore those subjects individually and at level 3 possibly leaving many students still undecided about what to specialise in at University. Combine this with an overly complex assessment model and you have a very poorly designed qualification that seems more like a politically fudged solution to the Tomlinson Report than a qualification which will address the needs of subjects and students.
Of course most teaching staff who have closely read the qualification specs rather than being swept along by the hype could have pointed this out a couple of years ago. The difference now is that the penny seems to have finally dropped with a group of politicians. The fact that it is the Conservatives, who came up with the short lived but dreadful GNVQ (a qualification so bureaucratic that teaching staff had to consult 3 different assessment books and tick 7 boxes every time a student picked up a pencil) still leaves me concerned about what they would replace it with.
I look forward to the day when we have some qualifications which highlight the subject the student is studying rather than insisting that they constantly service the mechanics of the qualification itself. Subjects before systems would be my first demand....... I think I might have a long wait though.
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20:47
12 September, 2009
davidballantyne
As a parent of a y10 son, a recently qualified FE teacher, and an individual that a very past education system failed I believe...
If the Diploma is to prepare young people for university it has to be academic and less practical. My son chose GCSE PE, I was so happy he didn't opt for the sport diploma. In his school anyone choosing any Diploma is shipped away for however long and then taught in the same set for core subjects of Science, Maths and English. How can one teacher meet the needs at such varying levels and how will these children compete for university places when others taking GCSE and A- Level are streamed.
During my training last year I saw some really good BTEC National Diploma results and the few who wanted to go to University gained places. I believe they were well prepared during their final year.
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23:25
12 September, 2009
gilly33
Best thing that could happen to this qualification. It has been designed by people who have not the faintest idea as to how it will be delivered. It is an impractical and logistical nightmare where resources are even a few miles appart. It won't improve anything that we don't already have. A complete white elephant!
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20:52
13 September, 2009
norfolkflyer
I'm responsible for diploma development at my school and help out with planning diplomas across a consortium in the south east. We have managed to recruit a large number of students to the level 2 and 3 diplomas, as parents have entrusted their children to our vision of how we could prepare them for future employment or study in HE.
The delivery of the diploma courses relies upon the passion and vision of the delivery teams to mould the qualification to the needs of their students and the needs of that sector locally.
When senior managers have that level of support and buy in from teaching staff, parents and students, we should give the qualification a chance to establish itself.
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10:33
14 September, 2009
NQTmonkey
This makes an entire nonsence of the whole QCF migration,www.qcda.gov,uk. How can you have an education system based on Award Credit Diploma with no diploma....This is all getting a little scary!
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10:42
14 September, 2009
MariaHagen
im a trainer teacher and having only just learnt about the complexities of the diploma, its quite a bizarre thought to think it may not still be in motion come finding a permentant position.
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19:42
14 September, 2009
artanddesign87
One of the ideas within the Diplomas is that they are HANDS ON.
University is HANDS on.
Shouldn't we be preparing students to deal with things HANDS on?
You can write a great academic report but if things are not done (hands on), how does this help learners on the bigger scale? ie. finishing university and getting into work. Employers want people who can DO the job.
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I am a trained Diploma teacher and would love to teach it, but unfortunately there are not that many positions available at the moment. There are faults in ALL qualifications and you cannot please everyone. You just have to hope that in teaching whichever subject it is that you are teaching, that you encourage your learners to make the most out of it.
After all, you get out what you put in.
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17:45
15 September, 2009
WalkingOnSunshine
If you think the Diploma is 'Hands On' you can't have read the specs. The only place that the Diploma is 'Hands On' is in its marketing and publicity. As an FE Art & Design lecturer of 20 years this is the worst vocational qualification I have come across. Far from being 'Hands On' I see it as a real threat to the future of the Creative Industries in this country. The students on the ND Art & Design course that I teach on have 'Hands On' experience of Graphic Design, Textiles Design, 3D Design, Digital Media, Photography, Fashion, Fine Art and Life Drawing as well as the visual language skills and critical/contextual thinking that underpins those subjects. Despite the fact that the Creative & Media Diploma threatens to replace the ND Art & Design course it offers nothing like that kind of diagnostic breadth which allows students to bridge the skills gap between GCSEs and University as well as making informed choices about exactly what they wish to specialise in as Art & Design Practitioners. The Diploma does not deal with its various specialisms in anything like the same depth. It does not fore ground the teaching of creative/making/ design skills (I can find virtually no reference to them within the qualification) and instead focuses on recording meetings, doing market research, liaising with clients etc. It’s not that these things are not relevant it’s just that they are meaningless if you don't have the skills to create anything that your 'client' would want to buy. Over a short period of time the Diploma threatens to wipe out decades of excellent British art & design educational practice. Ironically this is from a Government who has often lauded the achievements of the Creative Industries, a sector which is largely a product of the very education system it now threatens.
This is not an educational qualification it is a political fudge!
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20:44
15 September, 2009
davidballantyne
I’m stunned that in this furore over the Diploma no-one has considered Diploma students themselves – and how well they are responding to the qualification. I teach the Diploma in Information Technology. Over the last year I have seen students on the course really inspired by the style of teaching and learning. The Diploma takes a hands-on approach to academic learning, and places emphasis on project management, independent learning and teamwork. Our students have had the opportunity to experience what it’s like to work for large corporations such as Nokia or Oracle. These opportunities really motivate and benefit our young people. The Diploma has created a real buzz among our pupils because it makes learning feel individual to them and relevant to their lives. Many have said they don’t feel as though they’re at school at all. I find it frustrating that Diploma students’ responses to the qualification are so often overlooked. If we can give youngsters a qualification that motivates and engages them, as well as giving them the skills for work and university, they are more likely to succeed. The Diploma is doing this – we really need to give it a chance.
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15:24
16 September, 2009
hcl
I cannot believe that people are STILL calling this a vocational qualification! It seems to me that there are a lot of people bad mouthing the Diplomas when they really have no idea what they are about. The Diplomas do not - and never have professed to train students to be job ready. Diplomas train learners about a world of work - in a real and exciting way so that they can make an informed choice as to which path they take (a job with training or further/higher ed.).
I only wish that Diplomas were out there when I was 14 because the traditional GCSE route did nothing to inform me about real life. Let's stop the rot and embrace the change - its long overdue.
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19:46
17 September, 2009
AlisonAndrew
I rang Tory Central Office this week and they very kindly put me through to Dominic Cummings, Chief of Staff to Michael Gove. He gave me 30 minutes of his time and we discussed the TES headline.
He pulled no punches and I was pleasantly surprised at his level of candour. His forceful nature and the forthright opinions he made during the call, lead me to believe that the headline is true and Diplomas as we currently know them will not be around for long.
I suppose all opinions are better than none, so it was good to hear someone speaking with passion, even though I don't agree with him. I know firsthand of all the work and thinking that has gone into Diplomas at Consortium level, and the fact that there is still lots to be done to embed this qualification.
I guess this news will only serve to bang a few more nails into the Diploma coffin. How big is that coffin??
As some colleagues have already mentioned, initial views from learners have been overwhelmingly positive - teachers too. For that to end after one cycle, leaving some of our young people with a potentially worthless and certainly misunderstood qualification is
plainly wrong.
He did say that the Conservatives are committed to high quality academic qualifications and high quality vocational qualifications. Political words maybe but it would be interesting to see if they can come up with something distinct that works and betters the idea of applied, blended learning. I hope they are simply not responding to the demands of middle-class, aspirational parents who are probably never likely to accept that their child might benefit from vocational or applied learning, and that the only way for 'my child' is the 'academic way'.
There would still be an opportunity to retain the aspects of Principal Learning in a new package, possibly still called a Diploma even.
I hope they listen to deliverers and talk to learners currently on courses before they close and seal that large Diploma coffin lid.
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21:49
17 September, 2009
dcpenny
The Diplomas are about extending learning in an applied way into a wider context whereby the student can see the relevance of what they are studying to the world they live in. They can then make informed choices about their employment. Diplomas are not intended to be academic or vocational and those who think a qualification or learning experience must fit one of these 2 extremes is entrenched in 19th century thinking. Vocational subjects focus on job competence and academic subjects on abstraction (in the worst cases teaching to pass an exam). Neither of these routes leads to real employment readiness or encourages the development of a thinking individual and it has to be said that with the amount of intervention that univerisities put into remedial teaching A levels fail signifcantly in other aspects. We make a serious mistake in making 16 - 18 year olds choose options for their future and the broadness of the diplomas is about informed choices and creating thinking individuals. The UK is nearly 30th out of a whole list of countries for having teenagers in education or training i.e. we have more neeps that the others. The top 5% of students in China and the top 7% of students in India outnumber our total student cohort. It is about time successive governments in the UK stopped fitting people into the procrustean beds of the academic and vocational. We did away with a 2 tier schools systems (mostly) and shifted the class divide into exams and qualifications to the continuing detriment of our country. This anachronistic nionses must stop now and Diplomas offer a real and viable alternative to hammering students into one square hole or another. The very fact that we assess and examine students in an artificial environment entirely unlike anything they will encounter in adult working life should immediately draw the attention of anyone who wonders why so many fail at school and then fail to get jobs afterwards.
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13:24
25 September, 2009
AsmodeusII
I am amazed sometimes at the complacency of some teachers! I have spent 2 years researching and planning the diploma in Creative and Media for our consortium. Now at the merest whiff of Tory victory (have we all become Sun readers?) everyone seems to be preparing to dump the diploma and say "See I said it was a bad idea!" I don't think the diploma is a bad idea. In fact I think it is a very good idea and the working processes that you can instigate within the duration of the diploma can be a lot more eclectic and a lot more experimental than previous single subject qualifications have allowed.
The diploma allows the student to work to strengths and also develop new interests. I think teachers should always read between the lines when assessing a new specification. Who says the diploma cannot be skills based? Teach the skills that are relevant to the experiential learning you are assessing. Yes it does look at first glance like an arts admin course, but then ask yourself how many artists we produce who are almost incapable of selling their work or getting regular creative work simply because they are unaware of the commercial sector or of how to pitch an idea to a commissioning panel?
The tory party have always advocated capitalism as one of their ideologies, surely this is one of the most capitalist educational programmes we have yet to embrace and they want to ditch it? Watch the space, they will re-brand and claim it was their idea all the time.
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23:20
30 September, 2009
moakes2009
''The Tory party have always advocated capitalism as one of their ideologies, surely this is one of the most capitalist educational programmes we have yet to embrace and they want to ditch it?'' - And that's your best reason for advocating this qualification? Dear oh dear.
''Yes it does look at first glance like an arts admin course, but then ask yourself how many artists we produce who are almost incapable of selling their work or getting regular creative work simply because they are unaware of the commercial sector or of how to pitch an idea to a commissioning panel?'' - Fair point but when 90% of the qualification is about marketing and liaising with clients, where are you going to get the skills to make anything your client would want or even to have sufficiently experienced the breadth of your subject in order to make choices about specialisation?
The lumping together of Visual Arts, Media and Performing Arts especially in a level 3 qualification is ridiculous and smacks of prep school politicians and civil servants making decisions in wood panelled rooms based on their scant knowledge of the 'Creative Industries'.
The only complacency I've seen in the discussions about this qualification is from those who have swallowed the hype and failed to look closely at exactly what it asks for in terms of evidence. It certainly isn't creative skills. It will produce cohorts of fodder for marketing and selling organisations but few makers I fear.
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20:49
2 October, 2009
davidballantyne