With the Government’s renewed focus on technical and vocational qualifications – and the equal recognition of their importance to both young people and the wider economy, T levels (the equivalent to three A levels) and technical level qualifications (precursor to the incoming V levels) are all taking a higher priority - albeit the media narrative remains focused on A levels.

In terms of gender performance, a familiar pattern emerges, parallel to the academic A level route. Male students are behind female students in technical qualifications as they are in academic ones.

T levels

The T level results on Thursday alongside those with A levels show boys are behind girls. In many respects this position is clearer given that, unlike at A levels, there is near parity in the numbers taking them – 9,699 females and 9,878 males. This gives a clearer picture in terms of any attainment gaps without having to take into account differential entry rates.

Despite this, as the DfE graphic below shows, for those receiving merit or distinction/plus grades, the pass rate for female students entering these qualifications was 56.2%. Higher than the 45.6% for males.

Level 3 Vocational and Technical Performance Table Qualifications (PTQs)

Male students are also behind female students in other vocational and technical exams, run by organisations like Pearsons (BTECS), City and Guilds’ (Certificates) and Cambridge OCR (Cambridge Technicals).

Ofqual also aggregates the data, and the table below shows the entry pass rate for female students is 86.3% at Merit/Distinction level, and 80% for male students.

As with T Levels, the entry numbers are similar between male and female students so any assessment of the results, unlike at A level, is not distorted by differences in entry numbers.

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