AoC says students deserve better after delays to technical results

In response to delays in students undertaking technical and vocational level 3 qualifications receiving their results, David Hughes, AoC Chief Executive said: “Thousands of students are still in limbo without the qualification results they have worked so hard for, while most of their peers got them last week. It is simply unfair that they must wait longer and for many they cannot progress onto their next course or job. Exams and results are stressful at the best of times and this delay simply heightens worries.

“I have spoken to and written to the awarding organisations calling for answers and AoC has been in constant communication with Ofqual and DfE officials since we became aware of these issues. Every effort must be made to get the results out to the students, but we also need to have this investigated and I am pleased that Ofqual has already indicated to us that this will happen. Lessons need to be learned so that this does not happen again.

“We have a lot of questions about what went wrong and the timing and sequence of events. We need to know at what point the awarding organisations became aware of problems and why they did not act more swiftly. We need to understand why they have not yet released any statement on the numbers of students without results and why they have failed to put up any spokesperson for the media. Students deserve better than distant and incomplete statements from the awarding organisations who should show more care for the ultimate customers of their qualifications.”

Notes to editor

Over 100 college leaders met with the Ofqual chief regulator Jo Saxton in an online call on Monday afternoon to share their concerns and help to get the situation resolved.