I want to send huge congratulations to everyone who took their public exams this year – you should all be incredibly proud of your hard work. In the last couple of weeks, hundreds of students across Hastings and Rye have been opening their A Level, T Level, B TEC and GCSE results with excitement, anxiety, elation or sadly for some, disappointment. Each student has reason to take pride in their accomplishments, as well as their teachers, parents, carers and guardians who supported them. Whether their results supported their immediate plans or not, there still remains the potential for a bright future for each of them.
There is no doubt that this year’s results were going to be challenging, as the first year of returning to pre-pandemic assessment and grading. Results were affected by this shift, marking a departure from the trends of 2022. While this presented challenges to those taking exams, it is heartening to note that the overall results for A and T Levels and BTECs, surpassed those of 2019—the last year before the pandemic.
Nationally, this year, 91% of UK 18-year-old university applicants secured their first or ‘insurance’ choice. 27.2% of A level entries achieved A grade or higher (more than in 2019), 90.5% of T Level students passed. It is wonderful to report that 16,530 students who had free school meals are going on to university - a 60% increase from 2019.
I have always maintained that an academic education is not the only path available to our young people. I have consistently campaigned for an equal focus – and funding – for courses that provide important technical and vocational skills. The last Labour government put a huge emphasis on university education by setting a somewhat arbitrary target of 50% of young people going to university. The unintended effect saw the numbers of young people not in education, work or training rising by a third. I am extremely concerned about Labour’s announced plans to halve the number of apprenticeships and also find it perplexing that Labour does not back the Government’s plans to crackdown on rip-off university degrees. These plans will safeguard students against courses that have high drop-out rates, do not lead to good jobs and leave young people with poor pay and high debts.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies estimates that one in five graduates would be better off financially if they had not gone to university. There are excellent alternative options to university, such as degree apprenticeships which allow young people to earn and gain valuable experience while they learn (with no student debt). Few young people may know that they could, for example, become a teacher, a nurse, an engineer or even a solicitor via the 140 degree apprenticeship options and a further 530 alternative apprenticeships are available to those not interested in combining it with a degree. The Secretary of State for Education, Gillian Keegan, herself, is passionate about apprenticeships having left school at 16 to embark on a degree apprenticeship. £40 million of extra funding is now supporting degree apprenticeships and new qualifications in a wide range of careers, including space engineering and policing.
Another route to a great career is through Higher Technical Qualifications, offering young people an exciting employer-led, hands-on study in fields such as network engineering, cyber security and data analysis. These qualifications provide alternatives to apprenticeships or degrees and can be studied full- or part-time. Vocational Technical Qualifications, such as BTECs and T Levels, are practical qualifications for over 16s and are designed to help young people get the skills they need to go on to higher levels of education, start an apprenticeship or a career.
Gaining essential skills, whichever post examination route is taken, is essential - a form of currency in today’s working world. In today’s ever-changing job market employers are often more interested in hiring employees with a specific skill set rather than those who simply have a university degree. Having a degree is no longer the only determining factor when it comes to getting a job, and this is why the Government is so focused on giving young people all of the skills they need to realise their full potential for the rest of their lives.