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Languages in the Diplomas overview

Timetable for delivery | Post 14 qualifications

Diplomas are the new qualifications for 14 to 19 year olds which herald the biggest change to the 14 to 19 curriculum for many years. Sitting alongside GCSEs and A Levels, they offer young people the opportunity to gain knowledge and skills within an applied, sector-focused context.

Employers have been actively involved in the development of the new qualifications, keen to ensure that young people gain not only knowledge of a particular sector/subject (known as lines of learning), but also vital skills for employment and higher education such as literacy, numeracy and IT skills, along with the ability to think, interact and communicate at a high level.

What are Diplomas?

Diplomas are new qualifications for 14 to 19 year olds. They cover general knowledge and skills within an applied context. There will eventually be 17 Diploma subjects available, 14 linked to sector-focused lines of learning and 3 linked to the subjects of Languages, Science and Humanities. They will be offered at Levels 1, 2 and 3 (see note 1 below). The Diplomas are divided into three components:

  • principal learning (learning relevant to a specific sector/subject)
  • generic learning (learning for employment and personal development including a project and work experience)
  • additional/specialist learning (a variety of options endorsed by employers in the sector concerned). 

Full details of the Diploma subjects, the timetable for their delivery and the makeup of the Diplomas is available from the Diploma development partnerships and timetable page on the QCA website.

What is the Languages Diploma?

In October 2007, the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) announced that a further three Diplomas in subject-based areas would be available for first teaching from September 2011. One of these will be a specific Languages Diploma and the other two will be in Science and Humanities. This brings the total number of Diploma Lines of Learning to 17. They will be part of the same 2013 entitlement as the original 14 Lines of Learning. The Diploma Development Partnership, led by GoSkills the Sector Skills Council for passenger transport and partnered by CILT the National Centre for Languages, together with the Languages Diploma steering group, have developed an intial scope and draft themes and topics for the new qualification. A consultation on the scope and the draft themes and topics has begun and you can find details here. The main part of the consultation ends on 17 October 2008, although any contributions offered after that date will still be used to feed into future developments. Read here the DCSF press release on Ed Ball’s announcement.

When and where will the Diplomas be available?

Teaching of the first five 14 to 19 Diplomas (formerly called ‘specialised’ Diplomas) began in a selected number of school and college consortia from September 2008 alongside the current offer of GCSEs, A levels, etc. The consortia will have passed successfully through the government’s Gateways Diploma process (see note 2 below) and as such will have been selected to provide the first pilots. The discrete Languages Diploma will be offered from September 2011.

What are the Diploma subjects?

Teaching began of the first five Diploma subjects in September 2008. These are Construction and Built Environment, Engineering, IT, Society, Health and Development, and Creative and Media. Details of the other 12 subjects which will be rolled out in three further phases over the next few years can be found on the qualification development section of the QCA website.

What are the opportunities for languages within the Diplomas?

Languages are an option within the additional/specialist learning component of the Diplomas. Currently, any qualification on the Section 96 Qualifications page of the DCSF website can be offered as an option including languages qualifications. There are a range of language qualifications available such as NVQ language units, Certificate in Business Language Competence (CBLC), Asset Languages, or indeed  GCSE, Applied French GCSE or A Levels.  Information and case studies based on all of these qualifications can be found on CILT’s 14-19 Reshaping languages website.

The number of Guided Learning Hours (GLH) for each Diploma varies according to component and level: but there is enough time available at any level within the additional/specialist component to teach a language. For example, in the Construction and Built Environment Diploma at Level 1, there are 120 GLH available within the additional/specialist component. However, only full qualifications can be offered as part of any Diploma, so institutions would need to check how many GLH were needed to teach any particular qualification which they chose to offer.  Information on GLH for all qualifications can be found on the National Database of Accredited Qualifications. You can get an overview of all of the language qualifications for post 14 by downloading the excel spreadsheet on the qualifications page of CILT’s Reshaping languages.

Does the language option have to be at the same level as the main Diploma?

Currently, whichever language qualification you choose must be offered at the same level as the main Diploma. However the QCA has carried out a consultation about the possibility of languages being offered at a lower level and the findings are still under consideration.

What can language teachers and managers be doing now to prepare?

  • Speak to whoever is responsible for the development of Diplomas in your institution (probably the Deputy Head in a school or the 14 to 19 Director or Vice Principal for Curriculum in an FE college) and find out which consortium you are in.  Also find out which Diplomas your institution is intending to offer
  • Make senior management aware that a language qualification can be offered as part of the additional/specialist component of the Diplomas
  • Highlight what kind of applied/vocational language teaching the college is already doing/has done in the past and raise awareness of the expertise which exists within your institution or consortium
  • Convince subject specialists of other areas of the relevance of linking languages to their subject areas
  • Negotiate how/when that language learning might best be offered (eg as preparation for a Leonardo da Vinci supported work experience period abroad, as the basis for a student's extended project, etc)
  • Take part in the consultation on the Languages Diploma.

Can languages as part of a Diploma count towards performance indicators and benchmarks?

Yes.  Any full language qualification offered as part of a Diploma and which amounts to the required percentage contribution can be counted in the MFL Level 1 and Level 2 performance indicators.  Guidance on the percentages attached to qualifications and how they can contribute to performance indicators can be found in the guidance ‘Languages at Key Stage 4: Ten Questions and Answers for School Leaders’, provided by the DCSF. Therefore if languages are included in Diplomas, they can count towards the required benchmark of 50% to 90% of pupils at key stage 4 taking a language.

What official guidance is there  on including languages in the additional/specialist component of the Diplomas?

The QCA has produced excellent guidance on how to include languages in ASL complete with student profiles and modes of delivery. 

What resources are available to support the development of languages in the Diplomas?
CILT’s latest Languages Work materials tie into the new Diploma lines and highlight the benefits of languages in the workplace.
2. On behalf of CILT, Networks for Excellence has designed Schemes of Work in line with the first five Diploma subjects.  These Schemes of Work can be linked to any qualification suitable for offering as part of the additional/specialist component of a Diploma.  Five more are being developed in line with the next five Diploma subjects and these will be ready by January 2009. 
3. The Diplomas and work-related section of CILT’s 14-19 Reshaping languages microsite offer case studies, principles of teaching and advice on organisation issues related to linking languages to vocational and other curriculum subjects.

  • Note 1: NQF equivalences can be found on the Languages Ladder page of the DCSF website
  • Note 2: The Gateways process is a system whereby all schools and colleges wishing to offer a Diploma subject were required to send bids to Local Authorities, together with named partners, saying which subjects they wanted to offer within their consortia. Consortia are only allowed to offer Diplomas if they successfully pass through the process.