Diplomas or A Levels

[rov1200]

Do you think the the Diplomas are a better way of getting into higher education than the A level which is totally theory based? There are only 5 on offer at the moment but New Labour hope to increase these with theoretical subjects. The Tories would strongly resist their introduction and have promised to cancel them. What are your views?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7625483.s tm

[littleoldme]

Time will tell how successful the new diplomas are, but unless you're aiming for Oxford or Cambridge, who still think it's 1863, the existing BTEC National Diplomas are just as good overall as A-Levels for getting into HE (I teach Nat Dips for a living so I speak from experience). There may be some preference depending on the type of HE course in question, but certainly the more vocational courses (IT, Business etc) are more than happy to take students with Nat Dips. Their vocational nature shows that a student is capable of applying his/her learning in real-world situations, rather than just writing essays!

[rov1200]

Thats what I thought. There is bound to be a lot of opposition to the the Diplomas especially those who have taken A levels in the past and also those about to take them in future.
I have 2 grandchildren who have just started their Diplomas and because the college is some 20 miles away from home get a door to door taxi each day, That cannot be bad! Also the IT course is excellent as one of the first lessons was how to hack into passwords. At first glance this may seem out of order but it teaches them the necessity of having a well structured password themselves.