GCSE Reform Consultation: Qualifications Wales

Qualifications Wales are opening a national conversation on how qualifications will be delivered for 14 to 16 year olds from 2025 to support the new Curriculum for Wales. They are seeking feedback from students, families and anyone who works within the education sector to help shape the qualifications, which will be taught from 2025. This is particularly relevant to students in Year 7, who will be the first cohort to sit these. Similarly, families of younger children will also have a particular interest.

As a school we will participate in the survey. However, we encourage as many students and families to respond so that you views can be heard. This page is designed to support identification of the key aspects of the consultation. It will take you to dedicated pages, created by Qualifications Wales to support ease of feedback.

What is Qualified for the future?
The qualifications currently taken by 14 to 16-year-olds are being reviewed by the regulator. These include GCSEs, the Skills Challenge Certificate and other qualifications like BTECs, which we refer to as the ‘wider offer’.

The proposal is to ensure these qualifications support the new curriculum that is being taught from September 2022. When reviewing the existing GCSE level qualifications, reforms are being proposed where some

• GCSE subjects being reformed;
• GCSE subjects being combined; and
• subjects being offered as new GCSEs.

You can read more about these changes in Qualification Wales' decisions report, found on ‘The story so far’ webpage.

Next Steps
Qualifications Wales published a decisions report in October 2021. At this point, it announced their decision about Welsh language qualifications at GCSE level. The regulator is now sharing its proposals for the new look GCSEs and other qualifications. The intention is to enable the education community, students and families to provide feedback on the high-level design and content of these qualifications.

Feedback on proposals
To express your view on the proposals, visit the 'Have Your Say' microsite. This will allow you to understand what the intentions are. Qualifications Wales have created a created a dedicated youth-friendly version of the proposals and survey. To provide feedback, you will need to register to access any of the surveys on the Qualifications Wales platform. When completing a survey you can save your answers and return to them later before submitting your responses.

For more help on how to use this online consultation, please watch the video prepared by the regulator to assist you.

The deadline for feedback is Wednesday 14th December 2022.