Subject choices are still based on sex

Teenagers still choose careers according to their sex, results of new vocational exams indicate.

Entry statistics for job- related courses show that boys dominate computer and engineering courses while girls tend to choose health and social care.

The exams, General National Vocational Qualifications (GNVQs), were introduced in 2000 to offer job-related alternatives to traditional GCSE exams. They are set at GCSE standard but contain more material and are equivalent to several "academic" exams.

This summer's results are the first to measure the achievements of students on a full two-year course. Overall, more than 70 per cent of candidates passed – far lower than the 97.9 per cent who secured at least a G grade at GCSE – with girls outperforming boys by about 10 percentage points.

John Milner, convener of the Joint Council for General Qualifications, the body that publishes the exam results, said the boards could not explain the lower pass rate.

"We need to do some work to look at the rationale behind the entries for these qualifications. At this stage we can only say that these are the results," he said.

More than a third of candidates took the information technology qualification, with the majority of entries – 16,044 – from boys compared with 6,690 from girls. The position was reversed in health and social care, for which there were 7,889 female candidates and only 677 boys.