Vocational qualifications 'not popular' and 'not well designed': report

Higher level vocational qualifications are not popular, not well designed and their aims are not clearly understood by teachers, according to a report published by the education watchdog Ofsted.

The report, 'Vocational A levels: the first two years', found that the take-up for Advanced Vocational Certificate of Education (AVCE) was low and many teachers, especially in schools, lack recent industrial experience. Also, few students had sufficient opportunities to take part in work experience, the report found.

The report, which evaluated the quality and standards of the AVCE in a sample of further education colleges and sixth form colleges, comprises a one-year survey of the AVCE followed the introduction of the Curriculum 2000 reforms and the replacement of the General National Vocational Qualification (GNVQ) advanced by the AVCE.

One of the report's key criticisms of the new qualification was that it is neither seriously vocational, nor consistently advanced. The aims of the AVCE are not clearly understood by many teachers and students, and in some subjects course specifications lacked vocational content and were too similar to GCE A level, the report said.

The assessment regime was also regarded by Ofsted, teachers and students as "excessively complex and bureaucratic".

Further criticisms were that teachers spent too much of their time assessing, rather than teaching, and students spent too much time completing assessments rather than learning, the report stated. There was also a lack of consistency in the grades awarded to students for work of a similar standard, it added.

On the plus, support for students is generally well managed and effective and most of the teaching of vocational A levels witnessed by Ofsted was satisfactory or good.

However, repeated administrative changes and errors have done nothing to create confidence in the qualification or in those responsible for designing or implementing it, Ofsted concluded.

Chief Inspector of Schools, David Bell, said: "Today's report is worrying. Despite the fact that that majority of teaching on AVCE courses is satisfactory or better, the courses are not well designed and assessment is excessively complex and bureaucratic.

"Action should now be taken to increase the vocational skills component of most AVCE courses and make work experience a mandatory course requirement. The QCA should review the specifications of AVCE courses to reduce the emphasis on compliance procedures and allow teachers to set more imaginative assignments."

(gmcg)