Accredited official statistics

Vocational and other qualifications quarterly: April to June 2017

Statistics on vocational and other qualifications (excluding GCSEs, GCEs and Diploma and its components).

• From: Ofqual
• Published: 14 September 2017

Applies to England, Northern Ireland and Wales

Documents

Vocational and other qualifications quarterly: April to June 2017

Ref: Ofqual/17/6271

MS Excel Spreadsheet, 531 KB

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Background information_VQ quarterly_April_to_June_2017

Ref: Ofqual/17/6271

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Table of revisions

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Pre release access list

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Details

Main trends for quarter 2 2017

1. Just over 1.5 million certificates were awarded in 2017 Q2, a decrease of 5% on the same quarter of 2016.
2. The decline is mostly due to a decrease in the number of certificates in key skills, QCF, other general qualifications and functional skills.
3. Functional skills qualifications continue to replace key skills qualifications leading to a reduction in the latter.
4. The general decline in overall certification numbers may be caused by a tightening in the availability of funding; this is notable at entry level, level 1, level 2 and level 3 qualifications.
5. The largest increase in number of certificates (123%) seen in vocationally-related qualifications is likely due to the removal of the QCF.
6. The sector subject areas with notable increase in number of certificates were health, public services and care, arts, media and publishing and construction, planning and the built environment.
7. The sector subject areas with notable decrease in number of certificates were preparation for life and work, retail and commercial enterprise and business, administration and law.
8. The qualification with the highest number of certificates this quarter was BCS Level 2 ECDL Certificate in IT Application Skills, followed by QA Level 2 Award in Emergency First Aid at Work (QCF) and Pearson Edexcel Functional Skills qualification in Mathematics at Level 1.
9. The drop in certificates in Wales this quarter compared to the same quarter previous year was largely due to reduction in number of certificates in key skills and other general qualifications.
10. The drop in certificates in Northern Ireland this quarter compared to the same quarter previous year was largely due to reduction in number of certificates in QCF and other general qualifications.

Datasets

The datasets used to produce this release are available for England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

User feedback

We welcome your feedback on our publications. Should you have any comments on this statistical release and how to improve it to meet your needs please contact us as statistics@ofqual.gov.uk.

Published 14 September 2017