Successful completion rates in other technical and vocational advanced level qualifications such
as BTEC National Diploma are better (Spours 1995), but the proportion of 16-19 year olds taking
these qualifications has declined during the mid to late 1990s due to the growth of Advanced
GNVQs. BTEC National and its equivalent Scottish qualifications contribute about five per cent
to higher education participation in England and Wales (UCAS 1999). The only significant
advance in vocational attainment has been in the award of NVQ Level 3 qualifications - up from
56,000 in 1995 to 112,000 in 1998 (DfEE 1999b). However, NVQs are qualifications used in
work-based training and do not currently offer access to higher education.
If, however, the potential outputs of all vocational qualifications at Level 3 are totalled together,
they represent a sizeable block. Vocational qualifications at Level 3 do not fulfil their potential
for access to higher education in a number of respects. In addition to the problem of successful
completion, at present NVQs are not broad enough to satisfy higher education entry requirements
and those vocational qualifications that do offer access to higher education are relatively
invisible, because they are divided into different types, each of which is recognised by only small
groups of specialist admissions tutors. It is possible that the position will change from 2002
because of the introduction of the Qualifying for Success reforms (DfEE 1997). We will return to
this point later in the paper.
The work-based route
When assessing the performance of the education and training system as a whole, it is important
to take into consideration recent participation trends in the work-based route, that is work-based
programmes for 16-19 year olds. Since 1995, and the inception of Modern Apprenticeships
(MAs), there has been a concerted attempt by both the previous and present governments to
increase the effectiveness and outputs of work-based training. Measures include the introduction
of MAs with opportunities to qualify to Level 3, National Traineeships with qualification up to
Level 2 and, more recently, the ‘Right to Learn’ initiative for those in work but not in recognised
training programmes and who wish to achieve a Level 2 qualification.
Recent statistics suggest, however, that the plateauing trend affecting participation in full-time
education in the mid-1990s, may be spreading to the work-based route in the late 1990s (DfEE
1999e). Overall, participation in work-based training has ceased to grow over the last three years
(see Figure 3), though the quality of its internal composition continues to improve. Participation
in programmes leading to recognised qualifications at Levels 2 and 3 have increased whilst other
forms of training, such as Youth Training (YT), have declined sharply (see Figure 4). However,
the number of young people starting MAs has, during the last year, begun to peak. Moreover,
qualifications completion rates in MAs are a cause for concern. In 1998/9, 55 per cent of Modern
Apprentices gained a full qualification but only 35 per cent gained a full Level 3 qualification
(DfEE 1999e). While these outputs are an improvement on YT they are, nevertheless,
disappointing given that one of the main aim of MAs was to qualify young people in the work-
based route at Level 3.
These figures suggest that the work-based route may be reaching its capacity under current policy
conditions and they provide the rationale for the Government embarking on measures to improve
the situation (DfEE 1999f). This situation also calls into question the potential success of policies
advocating a rapid growth of the apprenticeship system to try to emulate the fabled German Dual
System (Steedman 1998).