Specialised Diploma

Grading the new specialised diploma

AQA welcomes the advent of the new specialised diplomas offering young people aged 14-19 the opportunity to have an education that meets their needs in a vocational setting. Students will eventually be able to choose one of fourteen specialised diplomas, five of which will be introduced from 2008. AQA believes that the inclusion of GCSEs and A-levels within the diplomas will be crucial to making sure that students following diploma courses continue to receive a suitable general education, including functional skills in literacy, numeracy and ICT (Information Technology). The diplomas should prepare students for future study and for life and give confidence to employers and Higher Education about young people’s skills.

However, AQA has concerns about proposals to give graded results for the specialised diplomas (as opposed to a simple pass/fail result). We believe diploma grading will necessarily be mechanistic, based upon complex rules for the combination of results from the relatively disparate units of assessment which will make up each diploma. These rules will inevitably be somewhat arbitrary with the grades being of little value at best and misleading at worse. The connection between students’ scores on the units and their grades for the diploma will not be transparent. Grading will thus be difficult to justify and pose a serious threat to the credibility of the diploma. Grading would also be inconsistent with many existing similar qualifications (such as the Welsh Baccalaureate) that are simply pass/fail.

We therefore strongly recommend that the credibility of the diploma will be more assured if there is no grading of the overall result but instead the quality of each candidate’s achievement is provided by the grade profile across the units in his/her transcript of results. Such an approach would not be confusing for employers or Higher Education but would give clear, easily understandable information about students’ achievements.

For more information, please contact Simon Buck on 01483 477807 or Claire Ellis on 01483 477911.