New digital exam results pilot launched to help schools and colleges to save up to £30m a year and cut back bureaucracy

Exam certificates will go digital for thousands of students this summer as part of a modernised ‘education record’ to be introduced by government.

The new digital records will do away with the need to manually pass on paper files when young people leave school, bringing their paperwork into one easy to access Education Record app they can use when applying for further education, apprenticeships or employment – saving time scrabbling around for documents. More than 95,000 young people in Greater Manchester and the West Midlands will also receive their GCSE results via the app this summer, ahead of a future national roll out.

The government estimates the move could save schools and colleges up to £30m per year once the full roll out is complete, enough money to pay the salaries of more than 600 new teachers in further education. The savings can be ploughed back into boosting skills to support the government’s growth mission.

The Education Record app is part of wider government drive to overhaul how the public sector uses technology.

Education Minister Stephen Morgan said:

It is high time exam records were brought into the 21st century, and this pilot will allow schools and colleges to focus on what they do best: teaching the next generation rather than being bogged down in bureaucracy.

This government is slashing red tape through our Plan for Change to drive growth, cut admin for teachers and give tens of thousands of young people more opportunities to get on in skilled careers.

Earlier this week, Minister Morgan visited the Hathershaw College school in Oldham, which has been trialling the Education Record app since spring 2024. Following the success of this localised trial, the DfE is scaling up the roll out.

Mark Giles, Principal at the Hathershaw College school, said:

We were proud to support the DfE last summer with the initial trial. The support from the DfE was excellent and the feedback from students and staff was very positive as the education record was accurate, verifiable and could be presented to providers without delay.

We believe this will reduce administrative burdens on schools, and in the future could also be utilised by parents of younger children to support transition from primary to secondary school.

This comes alongside a wider government march to modernise public services – led by the Technology Secretary who has launched his department as the digital centre of government to overhaul digital services and target £45 billion in productivity savings every year.

The government continues its drive to transform post-16 education, with changes to English and maths requirements that will see up to 10,000 more apprentices qualify each year in key sectors, and new shorter apprenticeships announced during National Apprenticeship Week. Changes to end point assessments will also mean it is even easier for businesses and providers to support getting people into the workforce. A £302m government cash injection to fix, maintain and improve FE College buildings across England, will also ensure FE colleges are able to attract and retain learners.

In March the Chancellor announced a £625m investment in construction skills that will help to train up to 60,000 more engineers, electricians and builders by 2029.  The funding complements the new Construction Skills Hubs, funded by industry, which will also speed up the training of construction workers crucial to supporting the government’s homebuilding drive.