Department for Education, FAB and Ofqual joint statement on reissued results

Joint statement from @EducationGovUK, Federation @AwardingBodies and @Ofqual on reissued results

“We want to say congratulations to everyone who received their vocational and technical qualifications results this month. You should all be very proud of your achievements and looking forward to taking your next steps.

“We understand the delay to receiving your final grades will have been frustrating and worrying, but we wanted to make absolutely sure that nobody was adversely affected by the change in circumstances this year and this meant that grades for a very small number of qualifications had to be reissued.  Where students have received a reissued result, no student will have seen their grades downgraded. Their result will either have stayed the same or improved.

“We have met daily to work together with the relevant awarding organisations, the Association of Colleges, the Sixth Form Colleges Association and UCAS so that students have been receiving their reissued results as quickly as possible, and so that universities, colleges and schools continue to hold places for students awaiting their final results. Further education colleges and sixth form colleges have been allowing students to enrol without their confirmed grades, and UCAS has also reported good progress with the vast majority of students with vocational and technical qualifications having already been placed at their first choice of higher education institution.

“We are very grateful for the enormous effort that awarding organisations, schools, colleges and other providers have put in over the past couple of weeks to ensure that results are processed as quickly as possible, so students can move on to the next phase of their lives.”

Further info:

• Vocational and technical qualifications are awarded differently to A levels and GCSEs, and the vast majority were not affected by the change in how A level and GCSE grades were awarded.
• The statistical approach used for A levels and GCSE results was not generally used for VTQs. Results generally took into account coursework already completed. Centre assessment grades formed a small part of the final results, and the majority of results are in line with centre assessment grades.
• However, some of the awarding organisations decided to review their approaches to make sure students’ grades are fair as compared to their A level and GCSE peers.
• Like every year, there is always a small proportion of students who will still be waiting to receive their grades. There are lots of different qualifications on offer, each with its own rules, and a range of information needed to finalise the results. Students should contact their school, college or training provider in the first instance if they have any queries.