ABSTRACT
Qualifications are attained upon successful completion of a programme of education, training or work experience. The first qualifications attained by individuals typically follow the successful completion of public examinations at around the age of sixteen with others often taken around the age of eighteen. Such examinations are usually ‘national’, but the International Baccalaureate is recognised internationally. Initial school-level qualifications are frequently in such academic subjects as mathematics, language and science, but children, as well as adults, may embark upon vocational, or pre-vocational, qualifications too, for example in such areas as business studies, bricklaying, hairdressing or travel and tourism.
