Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she has made of trends in the level of drop-outs from vocational courses in Fylde constituency; and what steps she is taking to help improve course completion rates.

The department's guidance on qualification achievement rates (QARs) includes official statistics on levels of achievement for a range of qualifications, including vocational learning. QARs are not published by parliamentary constituency, but full-year data for adult (19+) further education and skills in Fylde shows that there were 2,100 learner achievements in 2023/24, up from 1,810 in 2022/23. This does not split down by vocational courses. The data can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/introduction-to-qualification-achievement-rates-qars.

Nationally, we have seen that retention rates are improving. QARs within the 19+ education and training cohort have increased from 86.8% in 2022/23 to 87.4% in 2023/24.

​At ages 16 to 18, the retained and assessed rate for students who finished their T Level across 16 subjects in summer 2024 was up 5 percentage points from the previous year, over 10 subjects. The rate for large Vocational Technical Qualifications (VTQs) was up 3 percentage points.The statistics can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/provisional-t-level-results/2023-24.

​The department continues to develop and improve qualifications to ensure that they meet the needs of learners. Newly reformed qualifications will become available for delivery at levels 2 and 3 at the start of the next academic year. These are high-quality, aligned to occupational standards in technical routes, and offer clear routes to higher education or skilled employment.