What Wales Needs Beyond GCSEs

Geraint Turner, Business Development Manager (Wales) at Open Awards

For generations, GCSEs have been one of the main ways we measure achievement at 16. They are familiar to learners, parents, schools, colleges and employers, and they will continue to have an important place in Welsh education.

But as Wales changes the way young people learn between 14 and 16, we should ask a bigger question:

Do GCSEs alone recognise everything we want a young person to know, do and become?

I don’t think they can.

The reforms taking place alongside the Curriculum for Wales give us an opportunity to move beyond the idea that there is one measure of success or one route towards it.

Wales can retain strong academic pathways while creating equally meaningful opportunities for learners whose strengths, interests and ambitions take them in different directions.

The destination can be the same. The journey does not have to be.

Different routes, equally ambitious outcomes

There is still a tendency to think about education as a hierarchy of routes. Academic qualifications lead one way, while vocational or skills-based learning leads another. Too often, one is perceived as more ambitious than the other.

One young person interested in engineering might study GCSEs, progress to A-levels and then study engineering at university. Another might combine GCSEs with vocational and skills-based qualifications, progress to college and then complete an engineering apprenticeship.

Their educational journeys are different, but both can build successful careers in engineering.

We should not assume that everyone will take the same journey. The right route is the one that gives an individual learner the strongest opportunity to succeed.

Different learners need different ways to succeed

Anyone working with schools, colleges or training providers will recognise a simple truth: young people do not all learn in the same way.

Some thrive in academic programmes and examinations, while others demonstrate their abilities more effectively through practical activity, projects, problem-solving or applying their knowledge to real situations.

One is not inherently more valuable than the other.

If we are serious about creating an inclusive education system, we need qualifications that provide meaningful and rigorous opportunities for learners to demonstrate achievement in different ways.

Wales is already moving in this direction

The new National 14–16 Qualifications support this broader definition of achievement.

Alongside Made-for-Wales GCSEs, learners will have access to vocational, foundation and skills-based qualifications. The Skills Suite, for example, provides opportunities to develop Skills for Life and Skills for Work, with flexibility to create pathways reflecting different strengths, interests and progression aspirations.

The word “alongside” is important.

We should not create an alternative system for learners who do not take GCSEs. We should create one coherent system in which different types of qualifications complement each other.

Choice has to be meaningful

Schools need options that fit their learners, curriculum and local context. Learners need qualifications with a clear purpose and progression route. Parents and carers need to understand their value. Colleges, training providers and employers need confidence in what those qualifications represent.

For all of this to be effective and meaningful, awarding organisations need to listen.

In my role working with schools, colleges and training providers across Wales for Open Awards, some of the most valuable conversations I have are not about individual qualifications; they are about learners.

What do these learners need to progress? Where are the gaps in the current curriculum? What would give them the best opportunity to demonstrate what they are capable of?

Qualification reform cannot simply be designed for education providers; it must be shaped with them.

Beyond GCSEs

Perhaps the biggest opportunity presented by qualification reform is not simply the introduction of new qualifications. It is the opportunity to change our perception of what constitutes a successful pathway.

What Wales needs beyond GCSEs is a broader definition of achievement and a qualification system that gives every young person the opportunity to find the right route towards their ambitions.

The success of reform will be measured by where those qualifications allow our young people to go.

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