It's an interesting proposal

The UK is certainly falling behind other OECD countries in terms of the number of people we have progressing through to
Level 4 (i.e Higher Education), so they are making changes at Levels 1, 2 and 3 to try to combat this.

So the new Diplomas at Level 3 will create a clearer route into HE for students who would have done BTECs et al in the
past. The Diplomas also give a flexibility to the learner..there are core units and boundaries, but there is also the
opportunity to mix and match qualifications in order to achieve their diploma..so there will be a mix of vocational stuff and
academic rigour.

There are going to be some massive problems in delivering these Diplomas though. one major one being that as part of the
Dip, every single student has to take up an industry experience placement as part of their course, and there simply aren't
enough places to take them in.

As for academic rigour, well that's something which will be shown in time. Russell group Uni admissions people always
f**king moan about everything, so their comments are no great surprise.

There is no reason why McDonalds shouldn't be able to deliver this training successfully, they are a large organisation with
a lot of wedge behind them. Unfortunately they have shot themselves in the foot by being so abysmal in other areas in the
past, so whether anyone takes their qual seriously is another matter.

Posted By: Hertz van Rental, Jan 28, 12:42:38