To whom it may concern - Saving A Level Music Technology
I was disappointed to read that earlier this year Ofqual made the announcement that it was holding A level Music Technology under review. They published that they ‘did not have confidence that content could be developed to meet our principles’.
In the 5 years that I have taught Music Technology I have seen in excess of 50% of each cohort go on to study music technology based courses at university or enter the workforce in this area. Almost 100% of my students have gone on on use Music Technology in some form after leaving sixth form, as an enrichment activity or to support a related career such as journalism, lighting engineer, video editing etc. I have also seen several students who have stayed on for level 3 learning as a result of being able to take music technology. The differences between Music and Music Technology are enormous. They attract entirely different students, in the most part, and lead into very different specialty areas. Many professions rely on the use of web based media and digital media, all of which can supported by the skills learnt and applied in Music Technology. As a classically trained violinist, I can personally testify to wildly different subject matter required for music technology that took me a long time to learn in order to be able to teach the qualification.
If there are concerns regarding the academic rigor of the subject then let that be reviewed and amended, as opposed to potentially scrapping a course which gives many opportunities to budding musicians, producers, sound engineers, technicians, to name but a few. There is scope within the course to link it more heavily to science, creating the perfect hybrid between the revered STEM subjects and the creative arts, how is that for academic rigor?
Here is a link to the www.gov.uk document with the recent announcements
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/427471/2015-05-14-reform-of-gcses-as-and-a-levels-in-2017-may-2015.pdf
Here is the original article that articulates the value of the subject particularly well, based upon the original campaign by Aiden Goetzee, Head of Music Technology at Purcell School.
https://thesamplerblog.wordpress.com/2015/05/07/aidan-goetzee-act-now-to-save-a-level-music-technology/
I am glad to see that they have announced that they will be looking into specification reform, but the potential to stop further development is still there. I can only implore colleagues, students and professional to all express the importance of continuing this subject upon the appropriate parties. The cabinet may have shifted, but the positions are still there. Please write your letters of support to the appropriate parties, I have already started writing mine.