Cassy Taylor explains the work of designing an inclusive suite of National Qualifications for 14- to 16-year-olds.
The 2020 Future Generations report gave us a startling fact: 65% of Welsh children who entered primary school education in 2020 will go on to have jobs that don’t even exist right now.
The world and the workplace are changing faster than they ever have before. As a result, the need to build key skills, adaptability, and confidence in our current learners and future generations is paramount if we want to build a confident Cymru.
Hyder, confidence, is an important word for us at Qualifications Wales. Achieving the optimism and ambition for the future our country needs is the key driver behind our creation of an inclusive suite of National Qualifications for 14- to 16-year-olds, from Made-for-Wales GCSEs and brand new Vocational Certificates of Secondary Education (VCSEs) to Foundation qualifications and the Skills Suite.
Learners should have access to both vocational and academic options from an earlier age, and mindful of the importance of giving everyone a broad and balanced offer at 14.
This is an important step towards realising the ambition of the Curriculum for Wales, one that will give learners the confidence they need to take their next steps and employers, the confidence they can hire people with the right level of skills.
Skilled for the future
The new qualifications will help build our citizens’ skills, our country’s future, and its economy.
The changes we are bringing will encourage our learners to develop their skills in a number of areas:
- Life skills – including basic first aid and financial education to help them run their homes and fit into workplaces
- Digital skills – vital due to the changing nature of the home and workplace, with the challenges of AI and net zero technologies
- Presentation skills – the lack of these skills has traditionally held back learners, and having these skills is important for learners of all backgrounds
- Workplace skills – we received a lot of feedback from employers about the ‘soft’ skills needed for the future such as teamwork, problem solving, creativity, and communication, alongside the need for digital skills
- Project development and management skills – particularly with our personal project qualification which allows learners to develop, manage, and submit their own project for assessment
We’re also keen that learners should have access to both vocational and academic options from an earlier age, and mindful of the importance of giving everyone a broad and balanced offer at 14.
The inclusive new additions to our exciting and innovative range of National Qualifications have been designed to complement each other, so that learners can take the best combinations of qualifications for themselves and their futures. It’s important that we in Qualifications Wales play our part in building confidence in the Welsh economy in an ever-changing world, too.
The new National Qualifications are also a valuable tool in securing the future of Cymraeg. They will all be available in both English and Cymraeg, supporting the Welsh Government’s aim to have one million Welsh speakers by 2050.
These changes will help prepare learners for life, learning and work, turning them into rounded citizens of Wales equipped with the skills to succeed. We aim to give them the growth mindset they’ll need to adapt to the modern world and embrace lifelong learning.
What happens next?
At every stage of the process of developing new qualifications, we’ve listened to the views of learners, parents and carers, educators, training providers, awarding bodies, and employers. This continues now as we work towards the publication of the approval criteria for the VCSEs, Foundation qualifications, and skills qualifications in late 2024.
We’re currently working with awarding bodies, schools, colleges, and training providers to develop those criteria. Awarding bodies will then go on to develop the qualifications, working within our approval framework. We’re expecting them to publish their specifications in 2026.
As this development process takes place, we’re always mindful of one of our key aims, to build confidence in our new qualifications, especially among learners, parents and carers, educators, and employers.
The Made-for-Wales GCSEs, our VCSE qualifications, the Skills Suite including Skills for Life, Skills for Work and a Personal Project, and the Foundation qualifications, will all be in place by September 2027.
For the new GCSEs, we’re working closely with the awarding body, WJEC, and Welsh Government to review and approve the details of the new qualifications by September 2024. Schools will have a full academic year to prepare to teach them from 2025.
As this development process takes place, we’re always mindful of one of our key aims, to build confidence in our new qualifications, especially among learners, parents and carers, educators, and employers.
Our engagement strategy
Meanwhile, we continue to talk and listen to people across Wales and further afield as we explain the changes and answer questions.
Our engagement team holds regular drop-in sessions for Senedd members which have been well-attended, and we’ve had support from key organisations such as the Federation of Small Businesses Wales and the Confederation of British Industry Wales.
We continue to work with the Children’s Commissioner and our Learner Panel which meets six times a year. We also have plans to establish a parent/carer forum later this year and will continue to inform and involve learners and parents/carers on the qualifications reform journey.
We’re holding discussion groups and have lots of information available online on our National 14-16 Qualifications website along with a dedicated space for stakeholders to ask questions about the changes.
Of course, one crucial factor is that many of the people we’re talking to now have previously given us vital feedback about our current qualifications. They understand the need for change.
This brings us full circle to the starting point of this article. Our learners need the right skills to embrace the future with confidence. By creating our new suite of qualifications, we’re playing our part to create a confident Wales that works for all its citizens.
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