What is Vocational Education?

Vocational education offers an alternative to traditional academic subjects, like the ones many young people take at GCSE, A-level or degree level.

Vocational education is an education that prepares students for work in a specific trade, as a technician, or in professional vocations such as engineering, accountancy, nursing, medicine, architecture, or law. There is often a strong emphasis on manual and practical activities and they are traditionally less academic. Vocational education is sometimes referred to as career education or technical education.

How is Vocational Education different to traditional Academic Education?

The traditional academic route is centred around summative examinations usually taken at the end of year 11 for GCSEs or Year 13 for A Levels. There is a large body of knowledge to learn and associated skills to master that students need to be able to apply in the examination. The qualification result is based solely on performance in the final exams.

In contrast, Vocational Education is more of an ongoing process directly linked to the world of work. Students who study vocational education courses often say that they can see a work related link to what they are studying and this gives more purpose for them. Students demonstrate their capability in a vocational subject by completing a mixture of ongoing assignments and some external exams too. The qualification result is based on a balance of these in school assignments and external exams.

Why choose Vocational Education?

Vocational qualifications are designed to lead to a job, an area of employment and/or further study. They can be an attractive option to help prepare students for the world of work and a particular job or job sector.

Vocational qualifications are designed to meet the specific needs of employers and job sectors. This means that you will develop the skills and knowledge employers value, enabling you to become an effective employee and helping the organisation to succeed.

Vocational qualifications can help you prepare for a very specific job or give you a broad overview of a job sector and help you decide whether that career is right for you.

Are Vocational Education courses taken seriously?

Absolutely! These qualifications have been validated by employers, further education colleges and universities as good qualifications that will lead to jobs, apprenticeships and higher education opportunities.

Here at St James' we offer vocational courses in the following areas:

• Hairdressing

• Sport

• Business

• Hospitality and Catering

• Construction

• Creative imedia

• ICT

• Travel and Tourism

• Applied Science

Please look at the tabs at the top of this webpage for further information on each of these areas.