Strengthening vocational and technical qualifications
Evaluation of the functioning of internal assessment in existing national technical and vocational qualifications.
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In April 2018, we said in our corporate plan that we would be looking closely at those vocational and technical qualifications that play an important role in schools and colleges, many of which feature in the government’s accountability measures. We signalled that we intended to regulate these qualifications with the same seriousness and focus as we do general qualifications.
Part of this commitment was to evaluate the functioning of internal assessment in existing national technical and vocational qualifications. Against this backdrop, we have conducted research into grade inflation in some ‘older style’ Applied General qualifications, with a particular focus on those with 100% internal assessment that have been used for accountability purposes. It is important to note that this research did not consider the ‘new’ Applied General qualifications introduced in 2016 that were developed following changes to the Government’s performance table rules to incorporate external assessment and a core set of mandatory content.