Are the CPVE and TVEI qualifications now worthless?

Are the CPVE and TVEI qualifications now worthless? I was contacted by a 30 something who holds these qualifications requesting advice about careers. They said that nobody seems to have heard of them and they suspect that they could be worthless.

I can vaguely remember some qualifications that were intended as replacements for CSEs after they were abolished and GCSEs replaced O Levels. They were supposed to be more practical than CSEs but they turned out to be a complete flop and quietly disappeared a few years later.

The Certificate of Pre-vocational Education (CPVE) was a vocational course and qualification offered in both secondary schools and colleges that was developed some time in the 1980s as part of a government training strategy. It was a competitor qualification to the BTEC First Diploma that was launched at about the same time but was only available in colleges as the government would not allow secondary schools to offer it. The CPVE framework consisted of a common core of skills useful in adult life which could be applied all employment situations, and optional modules to develop knowledge and skills in specific vocational areas. Students also had to undertake a short period of work experience as part of the course. There were no exams as the CPVE was a continuous assessment programme where students kept a portfolio of their work which contained details of their achievements, competances, and capabilities.

The CPVE was never a successful course and qualification as it did not fit in comfortably with the existing qualifications framework and was always overshadowed by the BTEC First Diploma. Very few employers understood or valued the CPVE as a qualification and many saw it as a qualification for students who lacked the ability and intellect to gain O Levels or GCSEs. Lecturers in colleges that offered both qualifications recommended that students took the BTEC First course rather than the CPVE as it enabled a direct progression route to the more advanced and well respected BTEC National Diploma courses whereas CPVE did not. Most further education colleges demanded either a BTEC First or four GCSEs / O Levels for entry to a BTEC National course which very few CPVE students had. This placed a serious barrier on CPVE students as many of them ended up having to take a BTEC First after their CPVE to be accepted onto a BTEC National Course.

By the end of the 1980s the CPVE was mainly confined to low ability students or students with learning or language difficulties. This resulted in the status of the CPVE declining even further in the eyes of students and employers. An increasing number of schools in middle class suburbs and shires were dissatisfied with the CPVE and wanted to focus their efforts on GCSEs. Head teachers claimed that the CPVE lacked credibility with local employers and it did not adequately prepare students for further education. Students who finished school with poor GCSE grades were now overwhelmingly resitting their GCSEs at college rather than enrolling on CPVE courses.

The CPVE still enjoyed support in a few parts of England, particularly West Yorkshire, even after most local authorities had discontinued it. It was still popular in Leeds in 1992 where most schools that offered it still held it in high regard as they claimed it allowed students to taste various kinds of employment before committing themselves. Head teachers of these schools also believed that every student who took a CPVE obtained something positive from it regardless of their intelligence and abilities.

In 1990 the government decided that the CPVE would be abolished. It was replaced some time in the early 1990s by the Diploma of Vocational Education (DVE) offered by City and Guilds that was more specific to particular occupations than the CPVE was but still contained a core skills module. By the mid 1990s the DVE was mainly offered 14 to 16 year olds. Students in the 16 to 19 age group now took GNVQs.

I personally think that CPVE is a virtually worthless qualification nowadays as so few people seem to know they even exist and nobody ever considers them a GCSE or BTEC alternative. With hindsight, they can probably be seen as an unsuccessful government experiment. I had strong feelings that the school diploma touted by the previous government would have gone down the same path.

A similar situation happened in Dorset back in 1989 although I'm not sure if it was the CPVE as my memory of the event is hazy. All I can remember is some qualification being discredited corresponding with a rise in college students resitting their GCSEs.



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