South West Regional Skills Enterprise and Employment Analysis 2007/2008

Final Report

4.13 Participation and provision

4.13.2 GCSE performance

The 14-19 White Paper(54) states that:

Young people who do not get 5 A*-C grade GCSEs (or equivalent) by age 16 do not have good opportunities to achieve success later. The overwhelming majority of young people who do well at GCSE level go on to take A' level. However, even among those who get 5 A*-C GCSEs, a high proportion do not get English and maths.(55)

The 14-19 White Paper states that no individual will achieve a Grade C or better in either GCSE English or maths without mastering the functional elements of literacy and numeracy.

So how does the South West fare? GCSE Attainment 2006 presents the provisional results for 2006. They show nearly 58% of young people in the South West gained five or more GCSEs at grades A*-C in any subject. This is higher than the England average and is only exceeded in the East and the South East of England. Girls outperform boys by 10 percentage points.

Within the region, Bristol significantly underperforms against national standards at GCSE and equivalent, although Torbay, Swindon, Bournemouth, South Gloucestershire and Somerset all have a lower percentage of pupils achieving 5+ A*-C grades than the national average. Attainment is highest within the Isles of Scilly, Bath and North East Somerset, Gloucestershire, Poole and Dorset.

The gap in attainment between those achieving 5+ GCSE grades A*-C including English and maths and those gaining 5+ GCSE grades in any subject remains the same as in 2005.

Table 11: GSCE Results, South West 2005 and 2006

Source: DfES

Against the Government’s ambition, only 45.8% of 15 year olds obtained five GCSEs including English and maths. Level 2 Maths and English are recognised as minimum standards for employability. The underperformance of parts of the region is significant and is the responsibility of Local Authorities to address.

As well as improving these basic skills, the UK also faces a challenge in future years in ensuring adequate levels of higher-level skills particularly in science. As the HM Treasury Report, Long-term opportunities and challenges for the UK: analysis for the 2007 Comprehensive Spending Review(56) points out, improving UK skills performance in science and technology areas, likely to be at the core of a future high-skilled specialist workforce, is essential to ensure that the UK remains an attractive location for business. Most employers responding to the Leitch Review also expressed concern about shortages in some specific disciplines, such as maths and science.

Yet at the same time, the UK is witnessing a fall in the popularity of these subjects in the education system. Between 1994 and 2004, the number of 16-18 year olds taking chemistry A' level fell by 7.5% and physics A' level by 20%, with a knock-on effect on entries to undergraduate degrees.

There are positive trends emerging in science in schools – in 2005, entries into A' level biological sciences were up by 1,427 students to 45,662, and chemistry up by 1,034 to 33,164, but with physics down by 506 to 24,094, it is clear this remains a challenge. In addition, the numbers of graduates in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM(57) subjects) that go on to undertake STEM jobs have declined in recent years. Only 46% of STEM graduates are in STEM jobs, with a further 8% in teaching.

The Treasury report also states that this implies a need for improved signalling within the market and the education system to ensure that skills are developed in the right areas.

Conclusions

There continues to be a significant gap in the region between attainments of 5+ GCSE grades A*- C and 5+ GCSE grades A*- C, including maths and English. Particular areas of the region have significant problems in this respect.

The fall in the numbers of young people studying science subjects is also of concern.

(54) 14 – 19 Education and Skills White Paper 2005, DfES
(55) Ibid, p18
(56) Long-term opportunities and challenges for the UK: analysis for the 2007 Comprehensive Spending Review, HM Treasury, 2006
(57) Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths