Ministers have announced plans to bolster 16-19 performance measures after admitting public accountability data misses the outcomes of nearly one third of young people.<\/p>\n
A Department for Education\u00a0consultation <\/a>said its current headline accountability measures for schools and colleges\u2019 16-19 provision only cover around 68 per cent of students because many vocational and technical qualifications are excluded.<\/p>\n This means the data is \u201cnot equally useful\u201d for all providers, \u201cin particular further education colleges where much of the 16-19 activity that is not captured in performance measures takes place,\u201d the consultation said.<\/p>\n New performance measures are set to be created for V Levels that are \u201cbroadly\u201d in line with reporting requirements for A Levels and T Levels.<\/p>\n And the two new level 2 pathways, alongside level 1 and below provision for the first time, would also be brought in scope for \u201cconsistent\u201d performance reporting, with attainment, progress, retention and destinations proposed as the baseline minimum measures.<\/p>\n Sixth forms and colleges face lighter sanctions<\/a> and greater freedom over when students resit English and maths, but risk tougher penalties if results slip.<\/p>\n DfE also wants to scrap two of the three current student retention measures, making \u2018retained and assessed\u2019 the sole headline retention metric on new school and college profiles from this autumn.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s what you need to know.<\/p>\n Information about school and college performance on 16-19 education doesn\u2019t give students and parents a full picture, DfE argued.<\/p>\n Courses currently in scope include A-levels, some other academic qualifications, applied generals, tech levels and level 2 technical certificates.<\/p>\n But many vocational and technical qualifications are left out because they do not meet old performance table criteria or because of a moratorium on new qualification approvals being in place since 2018.<\/p>\n DfE said this has left the tables too narrow, especially for further education colleges.<\/p>\n The department now wants headline performance measures that are more consistently applied across 16-19 provision at each level. Having one single set of measures covering all 16-19 learners has been ruled out as this would not capture the \u201cnuance\u201d of different levels and qualification types.<\/p>\n Instead, the government wants comparable measures within each level, which is particularly pressing as new mainstream qualifications, like V-levels and new level 2 foundation and occupational certificates, enter the game.<\/p>\nWhy change?<\/h2>\n
V Level performance<\/h2>\n