By Gavin Mackintosh-
Hundreds of thousands of students across England, Wales and Northern Ireland are receiving their long-awaited A-level results today, marking a pivotal moment for a generation facing choices over university, apprenticeships, employment and an increasingly uncertain transition into adult life.
Results day for many young people will bring celebration and relief as years of study culminate in grades that determine whether they secure their university places. For others, the morning will begin a period of difficult decisions over alternative courses, apprenticeships, employment or a return to education after falling short of their ambitions.
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This year’s results day comes against a strikingly different backdrop from the immediate aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic. While universities are reporting strong demand from 18-year-olds, the wider education and employment system is confronting a growing number of young people who are neither studying nor working.
Department for Education estimates indicate that nearly 58,000 18-year-olds in England will receive no A-level or equivalent results this year because they have dropped out of education and training, although some of those young people are understood to be in employment. The figures highlight the increasingly complicated path from secondary education into further study and work.
The broader picture is even more concerning. The latest official figures, published in May, showed that the number of 16- to 24-year-olds in the UK who were not in education, employment or training — commonly known as NEETs — had passed one million for the first time since 2013. Some 1.01 million young people were recorded in this position during the three months to March.
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The rise has placed pressure on ministers to demonstrate that academic qualifications are not the only route to a successful career. Education Secretary Lucy Powell has responded by calling for what she describes as a “revolution” in technical and vocational education, arguing that young people need a wider range of credible routes into the labour market.
Powell said her priority was ensuring that every young person had the “skills, knowledge, and confidence” needed to succeed in the jobs of the future. The government is planning to introduce new V Levels alongside A levels and expand technical pathways into careers from the age of 14, while fully funding apprenticeship training for under-25s.
The message reflects a significant shift in the debate over Britain’s education system. For decades, university has increasingly been presented as the preferred destination for school-leavers who achieve strong academic results. Yet rising tuition costs, housing pressures and changes in the labour market have encouraged a renewed focus on apprenticeships, technical qualifications and employment-based training.
University remains a major destination for many of those celebrating today. Early figures from the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service indicate that the number of UK 18-year-olds accepted onto degree courses has risen by 3% compared with the same point last year. A record 262,820 18-year-olds have so far accepted places.
The figures suggest that demand for higher education remains strong, despite concerns about the cost of studying. They also indicate that a potentially record proportion of young people could secure their first-choice university places this year.
However, the university picture is not simply one of rising demand. Financial pressures are increasingly shaping where students choose to study and how they intend to live while doing so. Higher living costs, accommodation prices and concerns about maintenance money are expected to influence decisions made through Clearing, the system that helps applicants find university places that remain available.
Universities and sector leaders have warned of growing financial pressure on students, with more young people considering living at home and working alongside their studies rather than moving away from their families.
The availability of places through Clearing underlines the choices still open to students who do not achieve the grades they were hoping for. A Press Association sample of 131 of the UK’s largest higher education providers found almost 22,700 undergraduate courses available through the Ucas Clearing system for students living in England on the eve of results day.
The opportunities are not confined to less selective institutions. Eighteen of the 24 Russell Group universities had vacancies listed for English residents, with a combined total of 3,483 courses available through Clearing.
Clearing is traditionally associated with students who miss the grades required by their firm university offer, but its role has become broader. Students who have changed their minds about what or where they want to study, those who did not receive an offer and applicants who applied outside the normal timetable can also use the system.
Results day is no longer necessarily a final verdict on a student’s future. A disappointing grade does not automatically mean the end of a university ambition, while an excellent result does not necessarily determine the direction a young person must take.
The day’s significance is also shaped by the recent history of A-level grading. Last year, 28.3% of UK A-level entries received an A or A* grade, representing the highest proportion outside the exceptional years of the pandemic. The Covid-19 crisis profoundly disrupted the examination system. In 2020 and 2021, traditional exams were cancelled and grades were instead based on teacher assessments, contributing to a sharp rise in the proportion of students receiving the highest marks.
When summer examinations returned in 2022, the grading system began moving back towards pre-pandemic levels. The comparison with 2019, the last year in which students sat summer examinations before Covid disrupted the system, remains significant: 25.4% of UK A-level entries achieved A or A* grades that year.
The return to examination-based assessment has therefore been accompanied by a broader attempt to establish what should count as success for young people. Academic achievement remains important, but policymakers increasingly face pressure to ensure that students who do not follow the traditional university route are not left behind.
That challenge is particularly urgent given the scale of the NEET population. The fact that more than one million young people aged 16 to 24 are outside both education and employment raises questions about whether existing pathways are providing sufficient support during the transition from school into adult life.
The answer for Powell lies partly in making technical and vocational education more attractive and accessible. Her plans for V Levels and expanded apprenticeships are intended to give young people alternatives to conventional academic qualifications while ensuring those routes lead towards real employment opportunities.
She has also pointed to increased maintenance loans and the reintroduction of maintenance grants as measures intended to prevent students from being priced out of higher education because of their financial circumstances.
The stakes are therefore much greater than the grades printed on today’s results slips. For individual students, the results may determine the university they attend, the apprenticeship they pursue or the first job they take. For policymakers, they provide another snapshot of how effectively the education system is preparing young people for an economy undergoing rapid technological and social change.
Today’s celebrations will rightly focus on individual achievement. Parents will share photographs, schools will congratulate their pupils and students will begin making plans for the next stage of their lives. But behind those celebrations lies a more complicated national story.
Britain is producing large numbers of highly qualified young people and university demand remains strong, yet at the same time more than a million young people are outside education and work. The challenge for government is to ensure that the transition between school, further education, higher education and employment does not become a point at which too many young people fall through the gaps.
For today’s A-level students, the message is that one set of results does not have to define an entire future. University, Clearing, apprenticeships, technical education and employment all offer different routes forward. The larger test for the education system will be whether those routes are genuinely accessible, respected and capable of giving every young person a meaningful opportunity to succeed.
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