News story

Guide to the 2024 Level 3 qualification results for VTQs in England

Covering Applied General qualifications, T Levels, and other vocational and technical qualifications approved for reporting in the Department for Education performance tables.

More than 400,000 results have been issued this summer to students in England across over 500 vocational and technical qualifications used for progression. These results have been issued alongside more than 800,000 A level results, supporting the achievements of all students to be celebrated on the same day. 

Ofqual is today publishing the outcomes from 245 qualifications (those used in school and college accountability measures). Over 217,000 of these results were for applied generals, used by students to progress to higher education. More than 32,000 were for tech levels, used to progress to employment or higher technical study. Across applied generals and tech levels, nearly 9% of results were at top grades.  

Students take applied generals and tech levels across a range of subject areas, such as health and social care, engineering, and digital media. The top 3 subject sector areas this year were business, administration and law (60,300), social sciences (39,600), and health, public services and care (32,650).  

Today is also the results day for students taking T Levels. Ofqual regulates Technical Qualifications (TQs) within T Levels, which comprise the core and occupational specialism. Overall T Level results have been published by the Department for Education, and Ofqual has published an interactive guide for TQ component results.  

T Levels continue to be rolled out, and this is the third year that students have completed them. Ofqual asked awarding organisations to award TQs generously in the first years of awards, as is the custom with new qualifications when students and teachers are less familiar with the assessments. 

Ofqual will publish an equalities analysis of GCSEs, A levels and vocational and technical qualifications, setting out the differences in results between students with different protected characteristics, in the autumn. It is not possible for us to complete this analysis ahead of results being issued, because final data is only available very close to results day. 

Sir Ian Bauckham, Ofqual Chief Regulator, said:

Congratulations to all students receiving their results today. This is the culmination of a lot of hard work for them and everyone who supported them on the way.   

Qualifications help people achieve their full potential and these vocational and technical qualifications will be used for onward progression to HE, further study and employment. 

Results issued, by Sector Subject Area for applied generals and tech levels  

High Level Sector Subject Area Number of grades 2024 Number of grades 2023
01 Health, Public Services and Care 32,650 39,000
02 Science and Mathematics 29,200 27,800
03 Agriculture, Horticulture and Animal Care 10,300 11,400
04 Engineering and Manufacturing Technologies 9,300 10,500
05 Construction, Planning and the Built Environment 4,500 4,200
06 Information and Communication Technology 19,900 20,400
07 Retail and Commercial Enterprise 2,000 2,150
08 Leisure, Travel and Tourism 26,300 26,000
09 Arts, Media and Publishing 15,900 17,900
11 Social Sciences 39,600 36,500
15 Business, Administration and Law 60,300 61,200

We have also published infographics about this year’s Level 3 vocational and technical qualification results.

Updates to this page

Published 15 August 2024