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Courses not up to scratch, report finds

Vocational business qualifications may be falling short in developing pupils’ understanding and skills in the subject, inspectors have warned.

Ofsted reportedly said 30 of 39 English schools whose vocational business courses it inspected had a “serious problem” as its report questioned whether business courses examined through internally set and marked assignments should be seen as equivalent to GCSEs.

Inspectors found some lessons focused too much on completing “narrow written assignments” that gave students little opportunity to debate issues, extend their thinking and develop a broader understanding and skills in the subject.

Despite students achieving good results, the quality of their work was weak, they said.

The report added: “Evidence from lesson observations, scrutiny of written work and discussion with students brings into question the case for claiming that such courses are equivalent to between two and four single-award, traditionally examined GCSEs at Key Stage 4.”

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This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .