Next Gen News

Domino effect caused by huge demand for degree places, could see A-level students taking opportunities from 16-year-olds

Pupils who do less well in their GCSEs face being squeezed out of further education opportunities as colleges snap up higher-performing students who have failed to get into university, the lecturers' union warns today as GCSE results are published.

A domino effect stemming from the crisis in degree places could force out some of those who have traditionally turned to vocational qualifications at the age of 16, leading to a rise in the number of Neets â€" young people not in education, employment or training â€" according to the University and College Union (UCU).

More than a quarter of students who applied to university still have no place and vacancies are fading fast, figures revealed yesterday. Some 187,488 applicants were still searching in clearing, according to the university admissions service, Ucas. At the same time last year the number was 141,130. Only 18,000 courses are thought to still have vacancies, compared with 32,000 in 2009, and at a number of universities many of the places are reserved for foreign students.

Labor pledged to extend the warranty for another three years, but Balls has accused the coalition for failing to commit to appropriate it, and raised concern that students from 2-year course of this fall may find funding withdrawn within 12 months.

Dan Taubman, further education policy officer at UCU, said that with between 150,000 and 200,000 students with A-levels set to fail to get a university place, some would turn to apprenticeships and qualifications such as BTec and HNDs, or seek to do resits or more A-levels. They would be eagerly taken on by sixth forms and colleges keen to boost their performance indicators, he predicted, reducing the number of places available to those getting GCSE results.

"Schools and colleges are to a large extent judged to be a success or failure on their exam results," he said. "That's a big incentive not to take kids who have just failed. It's just like the universities â€" they can be more selective, and the kids without are not going to get in."

Balls said: "Young people are working harder than ever to get good qualifications, but this government is quickly pulling away the ladder of opportunity from thousands of them.

"We don't yet know how big the cuts will be from next year, but this looks set to be the last summer for the school leavers guarantee before the cuts bite. Michael Gove must come clean on the scale of cuts he is planning for next year and give young people about to start a two-year course a firm assurance that their place will not be taken away after the first year."

Earlier this month the TUC said the numbers of long-term unemployed young people were still rising across two-thirds of the country, reporting that although the economy returned to growth at the end of last year, long-term youth unemployment was up more than a fifth on a year ago.

The DfE said decisions about funding for the September guarantee would be taken in October's spending review. A spokesman said: "This government is working to give all young people, regardless of background, the best opportunities to progress. We are committed to the continued expansion of the apprenticeships programme and, by summer 2011, the work programme will offer the personalised support that young people require, regardless of their circumstances."

Meanwhile a thinktank claims today that "educational apartheid" is developing under which lower-income students are considerably more likely to be entered for "sub-standard" vocational qualifications. Civitas said schools were urging pupils to take qualifications that boost their standing in league tables because they are worth the equivalent of four GCSEs at good grades, but some were "practically irrelevant". "Despite their value in the league tables, all too often a bogus vocational training route is being used simply as a way to take lower achievers off academic subjects," its report said.

In one case referred to Civitas was the BTEC first certificate in the hospitality industry, which includes a block of student learning are food and beverages, as well as a section on 'investigation Airports "for the citizens of OCR Level 2 Travel and Tourism.

A spokesman for Pearson exam board said it stood by the "rigour of the BTec vocational qualifications".

"Plenty of schools and colleges say that BTec qualifications stretch and engage their pupils in very different ways from GCSEs."

A spokesman for OCR said: "Civitas is wrong. OCR Nationals incorporate inherently practical, applied learning â€" founded on a solid base of knowledge and understanding. OCR has never claimed they fully prepare somebody for work in that sector â€" any more than a GCSE in an academic subject equips you to become a university don in a discipline."

Meanwhile it was reported in the Telegraph today that pupils who do not excel in their GCSEs are discriminated against by universities, who use the exams to weed out candidates for degree courses. Martin Stephen, the head of St Paul's school, west London, said: "The A* is being used as a crude, preliminary filter which is hugely regrettable because it simply discriminates against the late developer."