Accredited official statistics

Background information for vocational and other qualifications quarterly: January to March 2023

Published 15 June 2023

Applies to England

1. Purpose

This release presents information on the number of certificates issued for regulated vocational and other qualifications during January and March 2023 (quarter 1, 2023) in England.

It does not include GCSEs, AS and A levels, Advanced Extension Awards, apprenticeship end-point assessments (EPAs), Extended Project Qualifications (EPQ), T Level Technical Qualifications, and Principal learning qualifications. With the exception of EPAs and T Levels, details of the number of certificates awarded for some of these qualifications can be found on the website of the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ).

Regarding EPAs, the organisations that conduct EPAs do not issue certificates. Instead, the organisations request certificates for achievement of the apprenticeship from the Department for Education on behalf of apprentices, which are issued under Section A3 of the Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009.

Ofqual regulates the Technical Qualification included in the T Level programme. There is not a certificate for the Technical Qualification itself. T Level certificates are issued by the Department for Education after collecting information from both awarding organisations and providers. This information is therefore not included in this report. For overall T Level outcomes, please see the T Level results published by the Department for Education.

Data tables accompanying this release show the number of awards broken down by awarding organisation, sector subject area, type of qualification, and level of qualification.

Comparisons in this release are mainly made with data from the same quarter of the previous year and the 12-month period up to the end of the same quarter of the previous year, as well as pre-pandemic data in 2019. This is because of seasonal changes in the number of certificates issued over the year, as well as impacts of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and potential behavioural changes after the pandemic.

Between March 2020 and August 2021 alternative assessment and regulatory arrangements were required. Therefore, some of the figures reported during this period may be impacted by the public health measures taken in response to the (COVID-19) pandemic.

Exams and other formal assessments for VTQs have taken place again since the academic year 2021 to 2022. Awarding organisations were permitted to continue to make adaptations to help mitigate the impact of the pandemic on students and their learning where needed to ensure that results were fair, consistent and allowed students to progress.

For academic year 2022 to 2023, awarding organisations are no longer permitted to award results using alternative evidence such as Teacher Assessed Grades (TAGs). Students who completed some of their exams or formal assessments in previous years, and who completed the remainder of their qualification this academic year have been allowed to carry forward any results they have achieved so far. This applies whether the result was awarded using an adapted assessment or through use of alternative sources of evidence, such as those used to derive TAGs. Hence, figures in this report are likely to reflect these measures and arrangements.

2. Geographical coverage

The data covers regulated qualifications in England.

3. Description

Ofqual regulates qualifications and assessments in England. This bulletin includes data on vocational and other qualifications awarded in England.

Regulated qualifications are classified into different qualification types. The qualification type classification is completed by the awarding organisations offering the qualifications. Qualification types provide information which complements that provided by the sector subject area characterisation. Qualification type categorisation can give an indication of a number of features, such as the nature of the qualification, the type of assessment, the qualification level and guided learning hours.

Ofqual revised the list of qualification types in consultation with awarding organisations in 2018. Qualifications are now classified into 3 categories:

1. General.
2. Life and personal skills.
3. Vocational, technical and professional.

Table 1 gives a further breakdown of the structure of qualification types. In this structure, we removed qualification types that did not identify a coherent group of qualifications, that cut across other types or described a qualification using other information in the regulatory framework. We added types where necessary to cover the broadest range of qualifications that we regulate. No changes were made for those qualification types where there are qualification specific regulatory requirements such as GCSEs, AS and A levels, Functional Skills, and EPAs. As noted above, not all qualification types listed here are reported in this release.

Table 1: New qualification-type structure

Broad qualification type	Specific qualification type	Status
General	Advanced Extension Award	Regulatory type
General	GCE A level	Regulatory type
General	GCE AS level	Regulatory type
General	GCSE (9 to 1)	Regulatory type
General	GCSE (A* to G)	Regulatory type
General	Project	Regulatory type
General	Other General Qualification	Other qualification type
General	Free Standing Mathematics Qualification	Retired type
General	Principal learning	Retired type
Life and Personal Skills	English for Speakers of Other Languages	Regulatory type
Life and Personal Skills	Functional Skills	Regulatory type
Life and Personal Skills	Essential Skills (Northern Ireland)	Regulatory type
Life and Personal Skills	Essential Digital Skills	Regulatory type
Life and Personal Skills	Other Life Skills	Other qualification type
Life and Personal Skills	Key Skills	Retired type
Life and Personal Skills	Basic Skills	Retired type
Vocational, Technical and Professional	Technical Qualification	Regulatory type
Vocational, Technical and Professional	End-point assessment	Regulatory type
Vocational, Technical and Professional	Occupational Qualification	Other qualification type
Vocational, Technical and Professional	Vocationally-Related Qualification	Other qualification type
Vocational, Technical and Professional	Performing Arts Graded Examinations	Other qualification type
Vocational, Technical and Professional	Other Vocational	Other qualification type
Vocational, Technical and Professional	General National Vocational Qualification	Retired type
Vocational, Technical and Professional	Vocational Certificate of Education	Retired type
Vocational, Technical and Professional	National Vocational Qualification	Retired type

4. Data source

Information on qualifications (covering title, type, awarding organisation, sector subject area and level) is taken from Ofqual’s Register of Regulated Qualifications, which gives information on regulated qualifications and recognised awarding organisations in England (and Northern Ireland). Data on the number of certificates awarded are sent by awarding organisations to Ofqual.

5. Limitations

Data are collected at the earliest point available, which is the first day of the next reporting period. This reduces the time between the activity and reporting on the activity.

The main source of potential error is in the information provided by awarding organisations. Ofqual cannot guarantee the number of certificates submitted is correct and there may be systematic bias when the information is sent, although awarding organisations are expected to provide the correct data. Ofqual compares the data over time and checks for systematic issues, giving awarding organisations the opportunity to double-check the numbers provided. The figures reported in this release reflect the certificates issued by awarding organisations at the time of data collection.

6. Quality assurance

Quality assurance procedures are carried out as explained in the Quality Assurance Framework for Statistical Publications published by Ofqual to ensure the accuracy of the data and to challenge or question it, where necessary. Publication may be deferred if the statistics are not considered fit for purpose.

7. Published data

The data underlying these statistics are published alongside this statistical release at 9:30am on the day of release, and can be explored visually via this interactive tool.

8. Revisions

Once published, data on the number of certificates issued for any qualification are not usually subject to revision, although subsequent releases may be revised to insert late data or to correct an error. Qualifications may also be re-categorised to a different type, level, sector subject area or awarding organisation. In some cases, data may be amended to reflect the new categorisation.

9. Confidentiality and rounding

In accordance with Ofqual’s rounding policy, figures less than 5 are reported as ‘fewer than 5’. A 0 represents zero achievements. This is to ensure the data does not identify an individual student.

In general, we use unrounded values to derive percentages. As a result of rounded figures, the percentages shown in charts and tables may not necessarily add up to 100.

10. Status

These statistics are classified as National Statistics.

11. Related publications

• Vocational and other qualifications over time: this tool allows you to explore the number of certificates awarded in England for vocational and technical qualifications regulated by Ofqual from to 1 January 2012 to 31 December 2022.
• Further education and skills: the quarterly Statistical First Release, published by the Department for Education, reports statistics about learner participation, outcomes and highest qualification held in the further education and skills sector.
• A level and other 16 to 18 results: statistics published by the Department for Education covering A level and other results for 16- to 18-year-olds.
• The Education and Skills Funding Agency’s Individualised Learner Record data and the Department for Education’s National Pupil Database (NPD) provide data on graded qualifications and data broken down by region. The latter also provides data on progression between award, certificate and diploma, and number of registrations.

For any related publications for qualifications offered in Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland please contact the respective regulators – Qualifications Wales, CCEA Regulator and the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA).

12. Useful links

• Report and data tables accompanying this release
• Definitions of important terms used in this release
• Policies and procedures that Ofqual follows for production of statistical releases

13. 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 at data.analytics@ofqual.gov.uk.