Strengthening provision for home, heritage and community language qualifications: recommendations for policy and practice

Improved levels of qualifications in home, heritage and community languages (HHCLs) have significant potential to bring individual, societal, cultural and economic benefits for the UK. Harnessing that potential necessitates a more joined-up policy approach and collaboration between key stakeholders. Our research engaged participants in both mainstream and complementary schools, using focus groups with young people and semi-structured interviews with teachers, as well as an analysis of university admissions procedures. We show that the attitudes and experiences of pupils are highly variable across the system, in relation to the perceived value of their HHCL and an associated qualification, and also in terms of awareness of and access to a qualification. There are significant differences in the range of supports available to complementary and mainstream schools in enabling young people to become certified in their HHCL, and there is substantial variation across languages. Approaches to considering HHCL qualifications in university admissions vary widely. In addition to evidence of indifference towards HHCL qualifications, some examples perpetuate a language hierarchy, thereby creating the possibility for inequities to be built into admissions procedures.