Pupils to be offered vocational GCSEs in shake-up of England's school system
New two-year vocational GCSEs from September 2029 will sit alongside academic subjects and replace Technical Awards, with Ofqual-regulated grading to give technical education parity with the academic route.
Teenagers in England will be offered new vocational GCSEs alongside traditional academic qualifications under a major shake-up of the school system.
The two-year courses, taken in years 10 and 11, will be available in some subjects from September 2029 and will eventually replace the existing Technical Awards, which the Department for Education says do not consistently support progression to further study.
The first courses are expected to include business management and finance, creative media production, digital technology, child development, and building and construction. They will take the same amount of study time as GCSEs, with nationally set content and assessment and grading regulated by Ofqual to give vocational education full parity with the academic route. English, maths and science will remain compulsory for all pupils.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham said the change would move away from a “one-size-fits-all” approach: “We’ve all heard someone say ‘school wasn’t really for me’ because they were not given the chance to study vocational courses as well as traditional subjects.”
The government has also launched a national mission on work experience calling on employers to provide an additional 200,000 placements for pupils aged 14 to 16, amid concern that more than a million young people are not in education, employment or training. A consultation to shape the new qualifications will launch later this year.
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