Education Secretary says 'no one will ask about A-levels in 10 years'

Education Secretary Gillian Keegan claims students shouldn’t fret about their A-level results because ‘no one will ask about your grades in 10 years’ time’ as Labour slam her ‘rude and dismissive’ comments

• Hundred of thousands of students have received their A-level results today 

Education Secretary Gillian Keegan has sparked a row after she sought to reassure fretting students that no one will ask about their A-level results in 10 years’ time.

The Cabinet minister claimed future employers will have more interest in a job candidate’s time at university or in the workplace rather than school or college exam grades.

Ms Keegan made her remarks as hundred of thousands of students across the country received their A-level results today.

The proportion of A-levels awarded top grades has plunged after ministers and the exam regulator in England aimed to return to pre-Covid grading.

More than 19,000 18-year-old applicants have missed the conditions of their university offer and are now in a frenzy to find a place in the clearing system.

Labour slammed Ms Keegan for ‘incredibly rude and dismissive’ comments on a ‘nerve-racking day’ for those finishing school or college education. 

Education Secretary Gillian Keegan claimed future employers will have more interest in a job candidate’s time at university or in the workplace rather than school or college exam grades

Labour’s shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson slammed Ms Keegan for ‘incredibly rude and dismissive’ comments on a ‘nerve-racking day’ for students

The proportion of A-levels awarded top grades has plunged after ministers and the exam regulator in England aimed to return to pre-Covid grading

Speaking to Sky News this morning, the Education Secretary said: ‘Somebody asked me, “What will people ask you in 10 years’ time?”

‘They won’t ask you anything about your A-level grades in 10 years’ time.

‘They will ask you about other things you have done since then: what you have done in the work place, what you did at university?

‘And then, after a period of time, they don’t even ask you what you did at university.

‘It is really all about what you do and what you can demonstrate and the skills that you learn in the workplace.’

Labour’s shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson criticised the Cabinet minister’s remarks.

‘I think the comments from the Secretary of State are incredibly rude and dismissive,’ she said on a visit to MBS Sixth Form in Paddington, west London. 

‘This is a nerve-racking day for young people who’ve worked incredibly hard.

‘The last thing that they need is the Secretary of State offering comments like that. 

‘And it really does add insult to injury coming from a Government that completely failed to put in place the kind of support that our young people needed coming out of the pandemic, after all of the disruption they’d experienced.’

Ms Keegan later defended her comments and rejected the suggestion they were insensitive.

She told reporters at the City of London Academy Islington, north London, that ‘it is true, it is just real’.

‘It’s an important step to get to your next destination, but when you’re a couple of destinations further on there’ll be other things that they look at,’ she said.

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