Annual qualifications market report: academic year 2020 to 2021
Overview of the qualifications market in England and a single reference point about participants in the market.
Applies to England
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Details
Main trends
The main trends in the qualifications market for the 2020 to 2021 academic year in England were:
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There were 11,700 active qualifications (available qualifications with certificates) in the academic year 2020 to 2021, a 0.7% increase on the previous year.
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In total 10.8 million certificates were issued for GCSE, AS, A level and vocational and other qualifications available for award in England over the 2020 to 2021 academic year, up 4.3% compared to the 2019 to 2020 academic year.
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There were 6.1 million GCSE, AS and A level certificates awarded in the 2020 to 2021 academic year, up by 0.6% compared to the previous year.
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There were 4.7 million certificates awarded for vocational and other qualifications in the 2020 to 2021 academic year, up by 9.6% compared to the 2019 to 2020 academic year.
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The awarding organisations with the largest market shares in the academic year 2020 to 2021 were AQA (35.0%), Pearson (21.9%), OCR (7.0%) and City & Guilds (5.1%); the rest of the 142 awarding organisations with active qualifications (excluding the ones offering EPAs only) accounted for 31.1% of the market.
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Updates to this page
Published 24 February 2022Last updated 10 June 2022 + show all updates
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Some figures in the report and data tables have changed after data resubmissions from awarding organisations.
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First published.