Diplomas are starting in many schools this September. This means that at 14 (yes 14!) kids will choose between courses like Hair and Beauty, Health and Social Care, Engineering etc. If they complete this they get the diploma - if they fail one element of it they get no qualifications at all. At least now, kids can get some GCSEs even if they do not succeeed at all subjects. The diplomas include maths and English at a basic level (to GCSE grade C-ish). There is no skills element , that they might have learned if they did an apprenticeship, so that someone with a Hair and Beauty diploma won't know how to cut hair! Heaven knows what happens if they decide at 16, say that they really want to become a reasearch chemist, or to focus on Shakespeare but are stuck in Hospitality and Catering. There are to be three very broad and vaguely academic diplomas (Science, Humanities, Languages) but that's all there is for the boffs. Diplomas, we're told, are worth 4 and a half A levels. However, almost half the universities won't accept them and instead will look to the International Baccalaureat (IB) or the Cambridge Pre-U, both of these are like a range of hard A levels plus a project, done almost exclusively by private schools. Guess who employers like big accountancy firms would recruit - someone from Eton with the IB or the one who's been squeezed into a skill- free 'vocational' diploma? Be afraid, this tragedy is approaching fast!

The QCA has tried the hard sell on private schools because they know that they need to have private schools on board for them to succeed. My school are not at all interested, needless to say.

My understanding is that there is some kind of phasing in, so that is why there are limited courses available at this time, and at the more vocational end of the spectrum.

I don't trust anything this government does in education. The sooner they are out, the better.

my son's school are offering them. may keep some in education though rather than just leaving with nothing.

Southeastastra I hope you're right, but I suspect that those who struggle in any area will end up failing that aspect of the diploma and getting nothing, whereas someone arty but not so good at sciences, say, can get a good range of qualifications under the current system.
To add to the joy, most of these will need local schools to join up to make a consortium to cover the range of subjects so the kids will be bussed from school to school (and maybe drifting off to the shopping centre in the process) with nobody knowing yet how things like progress, discipline, truancy, parents' evenings etc will be managed. Apparently these are 'details'!

i know, i'm trying to look on the bright side, as they're offered at ds school. apparently they're already oversubscribed (especially the motor mechanic one).