Vocational and other qualifications over time

This interactive visualisation shows the number of certificates issued in England for vocational and technical qualifications regulated by Ofqual from 1 January 2012 to 31 December 2024.

Use the drop-down selections, to display the number of certificates for an individual qualification or for all qualifications of the selected qualification type, qualification level and sector subject area. Hover your cursor over each data point to also see the number of qualifications with certificates issued during this period.

Two trends are displayed: the number of certificates in each individual quarter and the number of certificates in each 12 month period up to the end of the quarter.

The data used in this interactive visualisation is published as accredited official statistics by Ofqual and is available to download.

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For any feedback on these graphs, please contact [email protected].

Return to the Ofqual Analytics home page.

If you need an accessible version of this information to meet specific accessibility requirements, please email [email protected] with details of your request.

This interactive visualisation allows you to explore the Vocational and other qualifications quarterly data, reporting the number of certificates issued in England for vocational and technical qualifications regulated by Ofqual from 1 January 2012 onwards.

It gives students, teachers, analysts, and others interested in these qualifications a new opportunity to explore the data collected and published over the years.

The data displayed in the graph can be changed with the drop-down selections. This allows you to view the number of certificates for an individual qualification or for all qualifications of the selected qualification type, qualification level and sector subject area.

Two lines are displayed in the graph. The blue line labelled 'quarterly certificates' shows the number of certificates issued in each individual quarter. The orange line labelled '12 months to quarter end certificates' shows the number of certificates in each 12 month period up to the end of the quarter. The 'quarterly' line shows the seasonal trend across the year and the '12 months to quarter end' line shows the overall trend.

This interactive visualisation does not allow you to explore the number of students taking a qualification or their funding.

Data on the number of certificates issued every quarter is sent to Ofqual by the awarding organisations.

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.

The data used in this visualisation is published as national statistics by Ofqual and is updated every quarter. Trends for each quarter are published in the Vocational and Other Qualifications Quarterly report.

In the data used in this visualisation, the number of certificates are rounded to the nearest 5 and values less than 5 are replaced with 5. Zero represents no certificates. The total number of certificates are calculated from summing the rounded values. There might be slight differences with published values where totals have been calculated using the original unrounded values.

This interactive visualisation includes data on the number of certificates issued for vocational and other qualifications in England. It includes qualifications that are currently regulated by Ofqual or have been regulated at any point since 1 January 2012, regardless of their funding status.

Regulated qualifications are classified into different qualification types.

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.

Further detail on the qualification types reported here can be found in the background notes of the latest release of Vocational and Other Qualifications Quarterly

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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 by the qualification's awarding organisation with reference to Ofqual's published level descriptors.

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 by the qualification's awarding organisation with reference to Ofqual's published list of sector subject areas.

A quarter is a 3 month period. A year is split into four quarters:

• Q1: 1 January to 31 March
• Q2: 1 April to 30 June
• Q3: 1 July to 30 September
• Q4: 1 October to 31 December

A 12 months to quarter end period includes the current quarter, and the three previous quarters.

Vocational and Technical certificates are issued all year round, but there is a clear seasonal trend. This interactive visualisation shows both the quarterly number of certificates, which is affected by seasonality, and the yearly number of certificates, which allows you to look at the overall trends.

The number of qualifications with certificates issued is also provided to help explain or contextualise changes in certificate numbers.

In addition to seasonality, it is important to note that both the number of certificates and qualifications can vary due to a range of factors. Therefore, changes in certificate volumes should not be solely attributed to changes in the number of qualifications being offered or seasonality. These factors include the many changes that occurred across the Vocational and Technical qualification landscape since January 2012. A detailed account of the context for specific quarters are provided in in each quarterly publication of the Vocational and Other Qualifications Quarterly report.

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For any feedback on these graphs, please contact [email protected].

Return to the Ofqual Analytics home page.

If you need an accessible version of this information to meet specific accessibility requirements, please email [email protected] with details of your request.