Background information for vocational and other qualifications quarterly: April to June 2025
Published 18 September 2025
Applies to England
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Purpose
This release presents information on the number of certificates issued for regulated vocational and other qualifications from April to June (quarter 2 2025) in England.
Geographical coverage
The data covers regulated qualifications in England.
Description
Ofqual regulates qualifications and assessments in England. This release includes data on vocational and other qualifications awarded in England.
This release does not include GCSEs, AS and A levels, advanced extension awards, Extended Project Qualifications (EPQ), apprenticeship end-point assessments (EPAs), and T Level Technical Qualifications (TQs). The number of certificates issued for GCSEs, AS and A levels, advanced extension awards, and Extended Project Qualifications (EPQ) can be found on the website of the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ). Reporting arrangements for EPAs and T Levels are different. The awarding organisations that conduct EPAs do not issue certificates. Instead, certificates are requested from the Department for Education on behalf of apprentices, and are issued under Section A3 of the Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009. Statistics on apprenticeships are published by the Department for Education. Ofqual regulates the Technical Qualification included in the T Level. There is not a certificate for the Technical Qualification itself. T Level certificates are issued by the Department for Education and are therefore not included in this report. For overall T Level outcomes, please see the T Level results published by the Department for Education.
Data tables accompanying this release show the number of certificates issued broken down by awarding organisation, sector subject area, qualification type, and level of qualification. Some tables also show the number of qualifications with certificates issued to contextualise changes in certificate numbers.
Comparisons in this release are mainly made with data from the same quarter of the previous year and the 12-month period up to the end of the same quarter of the previous year.
Qualification level
Regulated qualifications are assigned a level from entry level through to level 8 broadly indicating the relative level of demand of the qualification. Levels are assigned on Ofqual’s Register by the awarding organisation with reference to Ofqual’s published level descriptors.
Sector subject area
Sector subject area is a classification of qualifications into business sectors or subject areas maintained by Ofqual. There are 15 sector subject areas, which each include several second-tier sector subject areas. Sector subject areas are assigned on Ofqual’s Register by the awarding organisation with reference to Ofqual’s published list of sector subject areas.
Qualification type
Regulated qualifications are classified into different qualification types.
Qualification types are classified into 3 broad categories:
1) General
2) Life and personal skills
3) Vocational, technical and professional
Some qualification types are ‘regulatory types’ which means they are subject to the General Conditions of Recognition as well as specific additional regulatory requirements or other restrictions (such as subject or qualification level conditions). Other qualification types are subject only to the General Conditions of Recognition. Qualification type category is selected by the awarding organisation for the purposes of transparency on Ofqual’s Register.
Qualification types provide information which complements that provided by the sector subject area classification. Qualification type can give an indication of a number of features, such as the nature of the qualification, the type of assessment, the qualification level and guided learning hours.
Table 1 gives a further breakdown of the structure of qualification types. As noted above, not all qualification types listed here are reported in this release.
Table 1:
| Broad qualification type | Specific qualification type | Status | Reported in this release |
|---|---|---|---|
| General | Advanced extension award | Regulatory type | No |
| General | GCE A level | Regulatory type | No |
| General | GCE AS level | Regulatory type | No |
| General | GCSE (9 to 1) | Regulatory type | No |
| General | Project | Regulatory type | No |
| General | Other general qualification | Other qualification type | Yes |
| Life and personal skills | English for Speakers of Other Languages | Regulatory type | Yes |
| Life and personal skills | Functional Skills | Regulatory type | Yes |
| Life and personal skills | Digital Functional Skills qualifications | Regulatory type | Yes |
| Life and personal skills | Essential digital skills | Regulatory type | Yes |
| Life and personal skills | Other life skills | Other qualification type | Yes |
| Life and personal skills | Key skills | Retired type | Yes |
| Life and personal skills | Basic skills | Retired type | Yes |
| Vocational, technical and professional | Technical Qualification | Regulatory type | No |
| Vocational, technical and professional | End-point assessment | Regulatory type | No |
| Vocational, technical and professional | Occupational qualification | Other qualification type | Yes |
| Vocational, technical and professional | Vocationally-related qualification | Other qualification type | Yes |
| Vocational, technical and professional | Performing arts graded examinations | Other qualification type | Yes |
| Vocational, technical and professional | Other vocational qualification | Other qualification type | Yes |
| Vocational, technical and professional | National Vocational Qualification | Retired type | Yes |
Ofqual revised the list of qualification types in consultation with awarding organisations in 2018. Qualification types listed as retired type in Table 1 may still be reported on, where awarding organisations have not yet finished migrating their qualification types. Further detail on the changes to qualification types can be found in the background notes for vocational and other qualifications quarterly: July to September 2022.
New Digital Functional Skills Qualifications (DFSQ) were introduced for first teaching in August 2023. These replace Functional Skills Qualifications in Information and Communication Technology. DFSQ are available at entry level and level 1.
Awarding organisations
Awarding organisations refers to organisations recognised by Ofqual to develop, deliver and award qualifications. Awarding organisations are assigned unique Ofqual recognition numbers. Awarding organisations may sometimes change the legal entity which they are recognised under, for example as a result of a merger with another organisation. This results in a new Ofqual recognition number. In this report, figures are grouped by the awarding organisation’s name as stated on Ofqual’s Register, rather than its recognition number, therefore where an organisation’s legal entity has changed but its name on the Register remains the same, it is reported as one awarding organisation. Figures reported by recognition number are available from the statistical dataset published each quarter.
Context
From the 2022 to 2023 academic year onwards, exams and other formal assessments returned to pre-pandemic arrangements following the disruption due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. In the 2019 to 2020 and 2020 to 2021 academic years, alternative arrangements were put in place. Further details on these arrangements are available in previous reports.
Changes in the number of qualifications being offered is not the only reason for changes in certificate numbers. Certification and qualification figures can be impacted by a number of external factors, including changes to the Department for Education’s performance table qualification lists or the academic cycle. For example, we expect a peak in the total number of certificates in quarter 3 each year following level 1/2 and level 3 results days.
One student may receive multiple certificates. Trends in the number of certificates issued over time may reflect changes in the number of students taking those qualifications, but this is not the only potential explanation.
Data source
Information on qualifications (covering title, type, awarding organisation, sector subject area and level) is taken from Ofqual’s Register of Regulated Qualifications, which gives information on regulated qualifications and recognised awarding organisations in England (and Northern Ireland). Data on the number of certificates issued is sent by awarding organisations to Ofqual. Information on Ofqual’s Register is self-reported by awarding organisations and may change.
Limitations
There is potential for error in the information provided by awarding organisations. Ofqual compares the data over time and checks for systematic issues, giving awarding organisations the opportunity to double-check the numbers provided. The figures reported in this release reflect the certificates issued by awarding organisations at the time of data collection.
Quality assurance
Quality assurance procedures are carried out as explained in the Quality Assurance Framework for Statistical Publications published by Ofqual to ensure the accuracy of the data and to challenge or question it, where necessary. Publication may be deferred if the statistics are not considered fit for purpose.
Published data
The dataset used to produce this release is available separately, and can be explored visually in our interactive visualisation for Vocational and other qualifications over time.
Revisions
Once published, the statistical release is not usually revised. If data was revised after publication, for example to insert late data or to correct an error, the revision will be included in subsequent releases. Subsequent releases may also reflect where qualifications were re-categorised to a different type, level, sector subject area or awarding organisation.
Confidentiality and rounding
To ensure confidentiality, the accompanying data in this report has been rounded in line with Ofqual’s rounding policy. Certificate numbers have been rounded to the nearest 5. If the value is below 5, it is represented as ‘fewer than 5’ and 0 represents zero values. Where individual rounded values have been presented in a table along with their sum total, the total may be slightly different to the sum of these individual rounded values because it has been calculated using the original unrounded values. Percentages have been derived from unrounded values. Percentages have been rounded to one decimal place.
Status
These statistics are classified as accredited official statistics (referred to as National Statistics in the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007).
These accredited official statistics have been independently reviewed by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR). They comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics.
You are welcome to contact us directly at data.analytics@ofqual.gov.uk with any comments about how we meet these standards. Alternatively, you can contact OSR by emailing regulation@statistics.gov.uk or via the OSR website.
Related publications
Vocational and other qualifications over time: this interactive visualisation allows you to explore the number of certificates issued in England for vocational and other qualifications regulated by Ofqual from 1 January 2012 onwards.
Vocational qualifications dataset: certificates issued for vocational and other qualifications (excluding GCSEs, AS and A levels, Advanced Extension Awards, apprenticeship end-point assessments, Extended Project Qualifications and T Level Technical Qualifications). The data that is underlying this release.
Annual qualifications market report: the annual qualifications market report is published by Ofqual. It presents data on the number of qualifications available for award by Ofqual-recognised awarding organisations and certificates awarded for these qualifications.
Further education and skills: the quarterly Statistical First Release, published by the Department for Education, reports statistics about learner participation, outcomes and highest qualification held in the further education and skills sector.
A level and other 16 to 18 results: statistics published by the Department for Education covering A level and other results for 16- to 18-year-olds.
The Education and Skills Funding Agency’s Individualised Learner Record data and the Department for Education’s National Pupil Database (NPD) provide data on graded qualifications and data broken down by region. The latter also provides data on progression between award, certificate and diploma, and number of registrations.
For any related publications for qualifications offered in Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland please contact the respective regulators – Qualifications Wales, CCEA Regulator and the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA).
Useful links
You can find additional information related to this release in the:
- report and data tables accompanying this release
- definitions of important terms used in this release
- policies and procedures that Ofqual follows for production of statistical releases
Head of profession: Ben Cuff