20,000 - good enough?

It looks like numbers starting the Diploma in September are going to be around 20,000 considerably less than the Government imagined when it set a "not a target" figure of 40,000.

Is this a bad thing - almost certainly not. The Diplomas are a complex qualification, they will need time to settle, they will also need time for those schools and colleges who are delivering them to learn the best ways and (in my view) get the right students on the courses.

So lets' assume that each of the 20,000 represent a potential problem, we now have either:

a) half as many problems
b) twice as much time to deal with them

I just hope that the focus is not on the numbers but on the Diplomas.

www.guroo.co.uk

J

Choosing the right path with the right subject

Today the Daily Mail has an interesting piece. In typical Daily Mail style, it's written as a bit of a middle England scare story but underneath the headlines, it's relevant and actually nails the problem quite well.

The Universities (Russel Group. LSE, Cambridge are some named) have effectively black listed some of the A levels regarded as soft options as counting towards offers. Subjects like ICT, Leisure & Recreation, Health and Social Care, Travel and Tourism, Media amongst others and I'm honestly not picking on these subjects. I mention them because coincidentally these are in the the first or second round of Diplomas.
But the same Universities have said (probably with a certain amount of reticence and perhaps even Government pressure) that they will accept level 3 Diplomas as a route to a degree.

So here we are for a theory.

If you are a student about to set off on your level 3 course.
Choose A levels for academic or traditional subjects such as Sciences, English, Maths.
Choose Diplomas for Vocational subjects such as Media, Leisure, Health & Social Care, ICT, Travel & Tourism.

But don't try to do A levels in Diploma subjects and should Diplomas ever come out for Maths, stick to the A levels.

If this all works though, it'll make it easier all round!

PLTS and Attitude

Here's a one to think about, driven by my thoughts about grades and assessement.
In the new Diplomas, the grade will be decided by the primary learning. OK, that's fine but what is a concern is what is not being assessed.
PLTS is a key part of the Diplomas/Functional SKills and rightly so.
My worry is that if Diplomas are taught in th same way that GCSE are taught - ie to the exam, then PLTS will not get the credit or time it deserves.

Whay is this a concern? Because i recently wrote that employers value attitude and ethusiasm above other "paper qualifications" and these hugely important employability things can be part of PLTS.

Diplomas do represent a great potential way forward, my worry is that if they are treated like traditional quals, they won't bring the benefits to the young people who take them that they could do.

Controversial?

Grade Boundaries

I never really thought about this but grades are alomst aways set according to previous performance and the history of the qualification.
The piece in the TES about examiners not knowing where to set boundaries is very relevant when you hear some of the horror stories from pilot schemes where NONE of the Year 11 managed to "pass" the practice FS tests.
SO will that examiners err on the side of caution?
Probably, is this a bad thing - in the short term no, but in the long term it risks devalueing Diplomas.