Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many BTEC qualifications at each level were taken in each of the last 10 years.

Data relating to the number of awards for BTEC qualifications by level has only been collected since the 2005/06 academic year. Therefore, figures for 2005/06 to 2013/14 inclusive are provided in the table below.

BTEC qualification[1] numbers of pupils at the end of Key stage 4[2] in all schools

Number of Awards

Source: Key Stage 4 attainment data

These changes are the result of reforms to performance tables which have removed the perverse incentives for schools to teach qualifications that were easy to achieve and/or had an inflated value in performance measures. This served only to devalue vocational education. Now, the qualifications which can count in performance tables are those that are of demonstrably high quality and promote progression.

[1] Until 2010/11, comprises BTEC First Diploma and BTEC First Certificate. From 2011/12, it comprises BTEC Award, BTEC Certificate and BTEC Diploma.

[2] Those in all schools who were at the end of key stage 4 in the relevant academic year.

[3] Includes achievements by these pupils in previous academic years.

[4] Figures for 2006/07 and 2007/08 are provisional, all other years are revised.

[5] From 2011/12 onwards, BTEC and OCR qualifications awarded as part of the Qualifications and Credit Framework (QCF) are included in their respective BTEC and OCR qualification categories.

[6] Figures for 2013/14 are based on the new 2013/14 methodology where Professor Alison Wolf’s recommendations and the first entry policy have been implemented. Only those BTEC qualifications mentioned in the document at the following link are included: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/411159/Archived-KS4_performance_tables_-_inclusion_of_14-16_qualifications_in_2014.pdf. Therefore the results for 2013/14 academic years may not be directly comparable to previous years.