Up to now a great deal of the attention on General National Vocational Qualifications has been focused on full-time attendance and younger students at school or college.

Indeed, much of the literature from the Department for Education, the National Council for Vocational Qualifications (NCVQ) and the three main awarding bodies, have reinforced this impression.

However, the award does offer real opportunities to open up access and increase participation for mature students and for people in employment, also for 16 to 19-year-old part-timers and others on Training and Enterprise Council programmes.

There is an intention to phase out a number of diplomas and part-time certificates from awarding bodies such as the Business and Technology Education Council over the next few years and therefore the introduction of part-time GNVQs becomes essential. But there seems to be reluctance, particularly by one of the awarding bodies, to go firm on the exact date of phasing out these existing certificates.

This uncertainty causes real problems for colleges: should they introduce part-time GNVQs or stay with the existing awards, particularly those certificates aimed at part-time students? To run the awards in parallel would not be cost effective, particularly in these times of “convergence” of funding. (Cash paid to colleges for the same courses varies around the country. This is gradually being averaged out by convergence, causing many to tighten the purse-strings).

It is important that institutions begin now to see how best they can introduce part-time GNVQs. One of the real challenges facing colleges is the ability to manage the existing post-16 routes, these being: academic studies (comprising A-levels, AS-levels and GCSEs); the job-specific National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs); GNVQs and the Access courses for adults without formally-recognised qualifications.

There is now scope to create wider choice for students who can pick and choose a profiled range of units and modules from one or more of these options, to suit their needs. A model for putting the existing routes under one framework has already been proposed by leading school and college heads in both the state and private sectors.

In addition, the emerging models of the Modern Apprenticeship and its accelerated cousin, spelled out in the Government White Paper on competitiveness last May, will allow ever greater opportunities for the exploitation of the existing curriculum routes. It is therefore important that colleges, and other education and training providers, begin to introduce part-time GNVQs.

It would be sad if these exciting developments were held back by parochialism and territorial protectionist attitudes. After all, the courses are supposed to be for the students, not necessarily for the awarding bodies.

The awarding bodies do, no doubt, have problems with the current-market driven philosophies that are around, but it would be helpful to see them declare very openly their wish to support the development of part-time GNVQs.

When GNVQs are developed for higher education, particularly at level 4, many would-be students will want to study part-time so the more experience providers have at levels l to 3 (equivalent to GCSE and A-level) the better, and that experience should allow a more effective introduction of these valuable awards.

So, what could be a possible model for, say, an advanced level part-time GNVQ? The mandatory units could remain, providing breadth and balance of experience for the students, with the advantages of core skills in literacy, numeracy and information technology.

But more depth could be offered by way of the optional units. It could be that they could be NVQ units, which by definition are more job-focused.

Colleges would need to tailor courses carefully and draw up a profile of optional units for, say, part-time students being released by their employers, to provide the necessary knowledge, understanding and skill that those companies would expect from the award.

The award could be shaped to satisfy employers. Initial talks with them show they do wish to be involved in designing part-time GNVQs.

Another possible advantage would be for mature students - those who wish to take only part of a course. This growing population of students could find the addition of a part-time GNVQ whether for full or part awards very valuable. This would allow credit accumulation systems to be developed for them to build up a full qualification over time.

It would also allow easier recognition of what pupils achieved at school when they move on to post-16 studies. The higher level NVQs and GNVQs could also help people as they progress into work andor higher education.

It is essential that the awarding bodies and the NCVQ come up quickly with a clear statement about their view of part-time GNVQs. The current situation is very unsatisfactory. Colleges cannot afford to run existing certificate awards parallel to a pilot of part-time GNVQs. With a clear idea of what the time scales are, colleges can accept the challenges of management quickly and do so in a far more cost-effective way.

Dick Evans is principal of Stockport College of Further and Higher Education