A-level results day – industry comments

  Posted by: electime      15th August 2024

Kelly Becker, President, Schneider Electric UK and Ireland, Belgium and Netherlands:  

“As A-level students open their results, there will understandably be anxiety about next steps. While many will still have their sights set on university, alternative career routes, like apprenticeships, shouldn’t be ruled out.

“Apprenticeships offer young people a dynamic and fulfilling route to success, providing flexibility to shift roles based on business learning. Fostering both technical and interpersonal skills, these programmes allow for fast career progression. In fact, some of the best people I’ve had the pleasure of working with have climbed the ranks through our apprenticeship programme.

“This year, we have increased the number of apprenticeships we offer across the UK and Ireland to approximately 60 placements, understanding the value apprenticeships bring to those looking for an alternative career route to university, and to the business itself. Students should be reassured that as important as this results day is, the results themselves aren’t career defining. There are many options available to help them to thrive and forge their own route to success.”

Vishavjeet Sodhi, Head of Air Solutions at LG Business Solutions  comment on A-Level Results: 

“The rise in top grades in STEM subjects will act as a boost for the engineering and electronics industries. Both industries have faced a skills squeeze, that was exacerbated by Covid.  This new wave of students with top grades in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, will help provide the UK with an upstream of new recruits for today in apprenticeships, and post-University jobs.

“Converting A-Level certification into a competence for green technology rollouts is where we also need to see an acceleration. There is a critical lack of knowledge in new technologies that solve our net zero challenges, and it is here we must educate, train and inspire the future workforce.

“There are multiple pathways to developing next-generation green skills. And many ways to light up new career choices – from careers fairs and assemblies at schools to training academies within the industry.”

Becca Gooch, Head of Research at EngineeringUK, commented:

“Congratulations to everyone receiving their A Level and T Level exam results today. STEM A Levels provide a key route into engineering and tech careers, and we are particularly pleased to see a slight uptick in the numbers of girls sitting A levels in computing (17 per cent, up from 15 per cent in 2023) and D&T (32 per cent, up from 30 per cent in 2023) with maths and physics remaining much the same at 37 per cent and 23 per cent respectively.

Our research earlier this year indicated that girls in years 7-9  are switching off from science. It’s therefore important to redouble efforts to consolidate and increase girls’ interest in the key STEM subjects, something we’ll be working on with educators, industry and policy makers.

Today’s results show girls are outperforming boys in computing and D&T in both A*/A and A*-C. In maths, boys did slightly better in A*/A grades and girls better in A*-C. And in further maths, we saw boys do slightly better in A*/A and A*-C grades. In physics, both boys and girls picked up similar A*/A  grades with girls slightly outperforming on A*-C grades.

Since 2020, A Level entries have been on the rise, with mathematics remaining the most popular A level, with entries now exceeding 100,000. Physics and further mathematics have noticeable increases in entries (physics increased 12.3 per cent, maths up 10.9 per cent, computing up 11.3 per cent, and further maths up 19.9%).

T Levels are growing in the numbers choosing them and the subjects being made available. Today, 7,380 students will be receiving T Level results, twice as many as last year with 89 per cent receiving a pass. It is fantastic that around half of all T Level students completing their course studied an engineering and tech-related course, but it would be good to see higher grades in Design and Development for Engineering and Manufacturing which at 70 per cent has room for improvement.

T Levels are still very new, having only been introduced in 2020 – but more needs to be done to make employers and young people themselves aware of them and their benefits and we need to grow the 9% of females taking engineering and tech-related T Levels.

Between now and 2030, engineering jobs are growing faster than any other occupation – so we really hope today’s results encourage more young people and especially girls – to consider an exciting and rewarding STEM career.

Today may not have gone to plan for everyone, and for young people interested in a STEM career, please remember there are many routes into engineering and technology. Engineering is a broad subject covering a huge number of fields and a number of routes in.