10.8 million certificates were issued for GCSE, A and AS Level, vocational and other qualifications in England in the academic year 2020-2021, an increase of 4.3% on the previous year according to Ofqual’s latest annual qualifications market report.

Alternative arrangements for the awarding of qualifications were put in place in 2020-2021 in response to the pandemic, reversing the decrease in certificates seen in the previous year, particularly where occupational qualifications were cancelled or delayed.

Other trends emerging from the report include:

1. There were 11,700 active qualifications (available qualifications with certificates) - a 0.7% increase on the previous year.
2. 6.1 million GCSE, A and AS Level certificates were awarded (up 0.6%). This is in line with an increase in the cohort size. The top 10 highest volume A Level subjects account for 67.3% of all A Level certificates with the top 10 highest volume GCSE subjects accounting for 79.9% of all GCSE certificates.
3. 4.7 million certificates were awarded for vocational and other qualifications. This is up 9.6% on the previous year when some assessments were cancelled or delayed due to the pandemic. Most sectors saw an increase in the number of certificates awarded with large increases in health and public services. Twenty awarding organisations awarded 78% of all vocational certificates.
4. The four-year trend in declining numbers of Level 1 and Level 2 certificates reversed. The number of certificates in Levels 4 to 8 also increased reaching the greatest number of certificates at these higher levels in 5 years.
5. Four awarding organisations accounted for 69% of the total qualifications market share, with the remaining 142 AOs accounting for the rest. Twenty AOs awarded 90.5% of all certificates.