Main trends

• 12.4 million certificates were awarded in GCSE, AS, A level and vocational and other qualifications available for award in England over the academic year 2016 to 2017 (October 2016 to September 2017).
• The organisations with the largest market shares in these qualifications were AQA (27%), Pearson (23%), OCR (10%) and City and Guilds (7%); the rest of the awarding organisations accounted for 33% market share.
• The overall number of certificates fell by nearly 8% compared to the previous year, continuing the trend seen over several years.
• AS levels had the biggest percentage drop in the number of certificates (down by 43% compared to academic year 2015 to 2016).
• 6.1 million certificates were awarded in vocational and other qualifications, a drop of 10% compared to the previous year.
• 10% of the vocational and other qualifications certificates were in technical qualifications.
• 4% of the vocational and other qualifications certificates were in Applied General Qualifications.
• 23.7K qualifications were available in academic year 2016 to 2017, a 2% decrease on the previous year.