• GCE (General Certificate of Education) AS (Advanced Subsidiary) and A (Advanced) level  Qualifications in languages are a possible progression route for students after GCSE or other level 2 qualification. AS is normally completed in one year and students can either stop at that point or continue to A2 (Advanced Level)
• Many people use AS and A levels to go on to higher education, but they're also useful if you want to go straight into a job
• AS and A levels are at Level 3 on the National Qualifications Framework
• A levels are made up of the AS level and the A2. Each part makes up 50 per cent of the overall A level grade.
  

AS level
The AS level can be either a free-standing qualification, or can be valued as the first half of the full A level. At the end of the AS year students have two options (depending on the preference of your school or college): take the AS level qualification only or continue to the second year and go for the full A level.

Year two: the A2
In year two of a full A level, you take the A2. This is not a separate qualification, but rather the second half of the A level. The A2 is designed to deepen the knowledge gained during the AS level.

Awarding bodies which offer GCE AS and A2 language qualifications are AQA, CCEA, Edexcel, OCR and WJEC.

New GCE qualifications have been developed and are available for teaching from September 2008. For full details of the specifications and training events, visit awarding body websites. 

AQA, CCEA (Northern Ireland),Edexcel,OCR,WJEC (Wales)

For nformation about the new AS for first examination 2009 and A2 for first examination 2010 visit the specifications section.

MFL Requirements for Higher Education
For non-language degrees, there is no blanket requirement by universities for applicants to have a language qualification, nor is there expected to be.

In December 2006 the Academic Committee at University College London voted in favour of introducing a requirement for all applicants to include a GCSE in MFL or its equivalent. This has not yet been implemented and the planned implementation date is currently set for 2012. See the following article for further information:
• "University students face language requirement" The Guardian

Some individual courses, such as History at the University of Warwick require a good MFL GCSE (or equivalent).

At the University of Edinburgh, the College of Humanities and Social Sciences does require a language GCSE or SG grade C/3 or better, but the other colleges don’t. Read more here.

However, it is difficult to keep track of such course requirements as they can change quite frequently.

Free Languages Work resources are available to encourage uptake of MFL at KS4.  These can be ordered through the CILT online shop.