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General info
At the end of KS4 you’ll find there are whole range of different qualifications that you can take. Some of them are designed to be taken by young people who have learning difficulties others are for those wishing to follow the traditional academic route and some are for those wanting to go down the vocational route.
Most common is the GCSE, which you will almost certainly take in English, Maths and Science plus any other subjects your school thinks you’ll pass. There are more and more subjects available, including vocational ones, these are designed to give you more choices later in life.
Your school might do GCSE short courses that count as half a GCSE.
If they do you will need to do two courses to count as a full GCSE. GCSE short courses give more options – you can take:
- An extra short course on top of the usual number of subjects
- A short course in Religious education, ICT or Physical Education instead of a full GCSE, if it fits better with the other options.
Some of the vocational courses are being offered, in some areas, through a mixture of school, college and work placements. You’ll need to check and see if your school is one those offering these types of courses. In the next few years the government is looking to change 14 to 19 education and if you want to know more about what they are thinking then log on to the dfes website.
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GNVQs
- General National Vocational Qualifications are about work, but they don’t train you for a specific job.
- Courses where broad work areas are studied - like business, engineering and health and social care.
- Available at foundation and intermediate level or as a part award.
- Many schools are planning to stop offering some GNVQ courses at Key Stage 4 and instead offer GCSEs in vocational subjects. (Check with your school).
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NVQs
- National Vocational Qualifications are designed to assess adults doing particular jobs in specific areas (for example 'retail operation' or 'preparing and serving food').
- NVQs are helpful if you want to:
- do a work-based placement course (unlike vocational GCSEs, in NVQs you actually do the work in the workplace)
- demonstrate that you are good at a particular job
- get qualifications that recognise work you’re already doing.
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VQs
- Vocational qualifications are helpful if you want to:
- gain a qualification through a more practical work-based placement course. (This is unlike vocational GCSEs, in VQs – you actually do the work in the workplace – usually half or one day a week)
- demonstrate that you are good at a particular job
- get qualifications that recognise work you're already doing.
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Entry level qualifications
Added to the above are entry level certificates which are designed for those of you who would find GCSEs difficult.
- They're the first level of the National Curriculum framework and can be progressed later to GCSEs or NVQs
- They're available in a wide range of academic, work-based and skills based subjects
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Who to talk to
You will need to talk to your personal tutor about any or all of these qualifications to see if they are available in your school and if the school thinks they are the right thing for you.
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