Moving on from GCSE ‘failure’: Why the English education system must do better at post-16 transitions

Success in GCSEs at 16 continues to act as the key watershed for further progression in education, training and employment but in most ordinary years around two-fifths of young people in England do not achieve the benchmark of grade 4 (formerly grade C) in English and maths at age 16.

At this webinar, we launched the final report of a Nuffield Foundation-funded project, led by Professor Ruth Lupton and colleagues at the universities of Manchester and Aberdeen, investigating the opportunities and trajectories for 16 to 19 year olds in England. Their research reveals the heterogeneity of the young people who miss the GCSE benchmark and the impact it has on their access to post-16 pathways in different parts of the country. Achieving the ambitions for post-16 education and training set out in the recent White Paper, ‘Skills for Jobs’, will require a much bigger focus on the realities of the post-16 system identified in this report.

Authors of the report presented the findings and brought together researchers, practitioners and policymakers to debate how policy and practice might be designed to enable schools, sixth form colleges, Further Education colleges and training providers to better prepare and support young people to make successful transitions into post-16 education and training. We discussed these with a series of respondents and considered:

• Which young people are not being well served by current policies and provision?
• What are the contradictions and unintended consequences of current policies?
• What are the critical system factors, both within schools and post-16 education, that will improve opportunities?

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to get in touch with Molly Imrie, Events & Communications Officer (mimrie@nuffieldfoundation.org)