The public today rightly demands more and more from exam boards, and we believe that Edexcel has the best offer available for our schools, colleges and businesses around the world.

Edexcel does not just offer GCSEs and GCEs in the UK; that is only a part of our operation. We are a hugely successful business and part of the world’s largest education company, Pearson. Our success has been achieved because the qualifications we develop are well regarded and are what our marketplace wants to buy. Our qualifications are successful because they are designed by teachers for teachers, and with business for business. In a marketplace of choice, teachers buy Edexcel qualifications to help them provide a passport into employment or higher education for their students.

Being commercial - and profitable - allows us to invest millions of pounds in education annually. We have led in modernising the assessment process, and this has been welcomed by our regulators. Having the ability to invest at the level we do allows us to be innovative and to take risks. But, as with the other awarding bodies, we need to generate income to remain viable.

We have invested over £80 million in developing qualifications and modernising assessment over the past three years in the UK. And it is Edexcel, not the government or our regulators, that is investing millions of pounds in developing potentially the best Diploma offer in the marketplace. All this investment is not without risk; it is purely speculative, and it can take over two years before one single registration is recorded.

In addition to providing services to support the UK’s education, we have been successful in bidding for government contracts and consulting on an international basis. We have an international publishing side to provide student and teacher support materials. We offer adult literacy and numeracy qualifications, and Key and Basic Skills qualifications. We offer National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) internationally and we have our internationally-recognised BTEC qualifications and our BTEC Foundation Degrees. Our qualifications have an exclusive and unique range of 'added value' products: student workbooks, detailed student analysis, access to technology, online entry, computer-based testing, on-demand testing, e-Specifications, ResultsPlus and a range of other services for schools and colleges. In a marketplace of choice for teachers and students, we offer value for money.

Investment in UK qualifications will continue to be made by Edexcel as we work on new, innovative and useful tools for schools, colleges and learners.