Parents
Watch videos, listen to audio and download useful leaflets about the Diploma.
The Diploma is a new qualification for 14-19 year olds. It’s part of a national programme to provide young people with more options, and to encourage them to continue learning for longer.
You may have heard about them already, perhaps your son or daughter is thinking of taking one or is about to start the course.
Either way, it’s important that you get all the facts too; so you can help your child make the right choices and decisions about their future.
Our Parent Pages are designed to give you essential information about Diplomas, and also direct you to other helpful resources. There’s a leaflet you can download, and links to other useful sites. And if you have a question that we haven’t answered here, you can always contact us too.
Diploma facts
What’s important is that doing a Diploma won’t limit any future options for your child. With this qualification, they could stay at school, go on to college, do a degree at university, start a career or do an Apprenticeship.
What are Diplomas worth?
A Foundation Diploma is the same as 5 GCSEs at grades D - G The Higher Diploma is the same as 7 GCSEs at grades A* - C The Advanced Diploma is the same as 3.5 A levels
A Progression Diploma is also available, equivalent to 2.5 A levels An Extended Diploma will be available in 2011, containing extra maths, English and Additional and Specialist Learning
At the end, your child will get a student transcript listing out all the qualifications they’ve achieved on their Diploma course. So they won’t just get a Diploma in the subject area they chose, like Engineering or Hospitality - all the individual qualifications that make it up are included.
When do they start?
The first schools and colleges are teaching 5 Diploma courses now.
5 more subjects will be added for September 2009:
Another 4 will start from September 2010:
And 3 more will start from September 2011:
In 2011, the Extended Diploma will also be on offer. This contains extra maths, English and ICT plus extra Additional and Specialist Learning.
You can find out which schools and colleges are offering Diploma courses through your local 14 to 19 prospectus. Your child can talk to teachers, careers advisors or Connexions staff, and you can also find out more on the parents section of the Directgov website.
What’s different?
The Diploma will help your child develop work-relevant skills, as well as English, maths and ICT, in a creative and enjoyable way. It will appeal to students who like practical subjects, problem solving and applying what they learn to real situations.
It’s flexible, so students get more choice about what they learn. They’ll develop a deeper knowledge of their main subject area, like Creative and Media or Information Technology, plus they’ll get to broaden their study with other courses. These can be related to the main subject area, to do with a hobby, future ambitions to study at university or a career.
It’s important to note that the Diploma does not replace GCSEs or A levels. At Key Stage 4, your child will take GCSEs alongside the Diploma and post-16 they could take additional A levels as well.
What’s important is that the Diploma does not restrict future options - it will help your child make decisions about what they want to do next. Foundation and Higher Diploma students can go on to study for the next level of Diploma, take a different type of qualification such as GCSE, A level or Apprenticeship, or go on to a job with training. An Advanced Diploma can lead on to university or into a career.
The benefits
Students study by relating what they’re learning to real world situations. It means doing lots of projects and applying what they know to solve practical, work-related problems as well as organising themselves to complete a task. Because students have to cover theory as well as practical skills, they will keep their options open for the future. With both theory and practical learning, any route is possible when they finish - further study, or a job with training.
That’s what makes the Diploma different. It gives students the knowledge, understanding and skills they need to go on to employment, college or university - not one or the other.
Both employers and universities have helped design the Diploma. This is to ensure young people have all the skills they need (universities see the Advanced Diploma as broadly equivalent to three A levels) whatever they decide to do next.
Useful links
There are lots of useful links on the Directgov website for parents and 14-19 learners.
You can also download the Diplomas Guide for Parents which gives you more information on how the course is broken down and what’s involved for your child.
For more information on the 14-19 Curriculum, you can visit the DCSF website.
Go to the QCA website for more about the structure of the Diploma course.
If you’re concerned about the cost of further study for your child (post-16) visit the EMA website for more info on financial help.
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Visit these websites for more useful information on options.
