What happens when your hard-earned qualifications are not acceptable?

Supporting members who are experiencing issues relating to their personal terms and conditions of service is at the core of what we do. A recent case, progressed with the Member Support team, has highlighted the entrenched inequality of access to qualifications.  It also seems at odds with the ESFA’s push for simplification, evidenced in the recently released version of the Academy Trust Handbook and an unnecessary barrier adding fuel to the current recruitment and retention crisis in education. We also believe this is not an isolated case.

The problem we have come up against is that occasionally, particularly amongst our business leader members, the system of establishing the eligibility of qualifications taken abroad against criteria for accessing government funded training based on qualifications taken in this country, is frustratingly complex and inflexible. Endless time and resources are expended in checking whether qualifications taken abroad by British passport holders are sufficiently comparable with UK qualifications such as GCSEs, which can lead to delays in people starting or completing training for work.

The recent case mentioned earlier, and jointly supported by ASCL and the Institute of School Business Leadership (ISBL), highlighted the problems experienced when higher level (degree) qualifications achieved abroad were not recognised as prior qualifications which would have exempted the individual from having to take English and maths when applying for an apprenticeship programme.

Even though the individual had achieved a much higher level, these prior qualifications were not on the government’s list of qualifications permitted as GCSE-level equivalents. Hence, although holding degree-level qualifications in these core subjects, the individual was asked to repeat these qualifications at level 2. This seems absurd because the individual had achieved qualifications well beyond that recognised as a requirement of the final award.