The new 14-19 Diplomas coming in 2008

Written by Baroness Margaret Sharp and published in MARGARET SHARP is a Liberal Demcorat spokesperson in the House of Lords on education, science and technology on Sat 12th Jan 2008

September 2008 is the start date for schools and colleges to begin teaching for five of the new 14-19 Diplomas, based on the Tomlinson proposals which sought to introduce a secondary school curriculum more attuned to the needs of the general run of teenagers, many of whom find the GCSE/A level dominated curriculum too academic. Tomlinson's idea was to combine academic studies with a more practical approach so that those who learn better 'by doing' can concentrate more on the practical side while also introducing more hands-on experience, e.g. in engineering, for the more academically inclined.

However, whereas Tomlinson proposed replacing GCSEs and A Levels with an overall diploma, the Government chose to leave GCSE and A levels in place and introduce Diplomas as a separate qualification. From 2008 every 14 year old will have the opportunity to opt to study a Diploma course. Between now and 2010, fourteen 'lines' of study will be introduced, reflecting areas of employment. Reflecting the Government's wish that education should more readily serve the country's competitive needs, employers and sector skills councils have been centrally involved with the QCA (Qualifications and Curriculum Authority) in designing the courses.

Since very few schools will have the staff or facilities to teach even one of the diplomas, the idea is that they will be offer on a consortia basis with schools collaborating both with each other and with their local FE colleges. Some 14-year-olds have already been given the opportunity to spend one or two days a week at an FE college learning a practical skill. However, the Diplomas are far more ambitious and cover the total curriculum in an area.

Diplomas will be more or less full time, so those opting for the diploma course will have very little time left outside these studies to do much else. Essentially, therefore, we are now asking young people of 13 to choose not just what subjects they want to do at GCSE but between two very different routes in secondary education - one largely practical, potentially very exciting but at present unknown; the other mainly academic, tried, tested and well known.

And here, for we Liberal Democrats, lies the rub. As a Party we were 100 per cent behind the Tomlinson proposals - for far too long the GCSE/A level dominated secondary curriculum had turned off far too many teenagers from secondary education and we supported whole heartedly the proposal for an over-arching diploma. So how do we react to these plans?