Skills shortage ‘points to need for A-level changes’
The government must reform the A-level system to ensure students are equipped for the workplace, the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) warns today.
Ahead of the publication of A-level results tomorrow, new figures from the BCC show more than half of small firms in the service sector have problems recruiting staff with the right skills – 50.4 per cent, up from 43.8 per cent last summer.
The chambers says that in rejecting recommendations in last year’s Tomlinson report to create a diploma-style exam system to replace A-levels, the government missed an opportunity to make a “real difference” to the skills young people were taught.
“We congratulate students as they receive their A-levels grades. However, what those A-levels mean remains a mystery for employers with so much confusion over their worth,” said BCC president Bill Midgley.
“A-levels used to be the gold standard of qualifications which were highly regarded by employers. We again this year find ourselves in the sorry state of hearing that A-levels have been further dumbed-down and confusion over their value has increased.
“Students have been made victims of the system which now seems to have devalued their A-level results and their individual efforts.”
He called for the quality and rigour of the current system to be “improved across the board” and the skills gained in the process made “relevant to the workplace”.
“The government missed the opportunity to make a real difference to the skills young people obtain by failing to propose a single-overarching diploma earlier this year,” Mr Midgley said.
“We wanted to see a merger of academic and vocational routes which would have helped to raise the value of vocational training and ensure that core skills relevant to the workplace are gained by all those in education.”
Education minister Lord Adonis this morning defended the A-level system against claims that it was being devalued by the increasingly high pass rates – this year’s rate is expected to be about 97 per cent, up from 96 per cent last year.
“Report after report by the government’s independent agencies show that standards have been maintained,” he told Today.
While he insisted the system did not need changing, he did admit that changes would be introduced to give universities students’ individual module marks to help them decide who were the most able.
“The issue is whether you need to differentiate more finely so that universities have better information in awarding places,” Lord Adonis added. He is due to elaborate on this theme in a speech later today.
