College principals have said that the government’s move to ‘streamline further education’ by ditching more than 200 qualifications as part of the rollout of T-Levels, could damage young people’s prospects.
The qualifications, including BTecs and other post-GCSE courses, were taken by more than 50,000 students per year in England in 2020-21, according to the government’s enrolment data.
They are being removed to “streamline further education”, the Department for Education (DfE) said, but the Sixth Form Colleges Association said it wanted the replacement of older qualifications “stopped in its tracks”.
T-Levels, launched in 2020 are two-year vocational courses aimed at 16 to 19-year-olds. They focus on a particular area of employment, like construction, education or healthcare, and include 45 days of industry placement. A T-Level is roughly equivalent to three A-levels.
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Prime minister Rishi Sunak wants T-Levels to be combined with A-levels to form a single baccalaureate-style qualification called the Advanced British Standard. In the event of a Labour victory in the next general election, the policy may well be revisited but so far, Labour’s shadow skills minister, Toby Perkins, has refused to commit to reversing the government’s removal of funding from level 3 qualifications, like BTecs, that overlap with T-Levels.
More than 130 such courses that are set to overlap with the first T-Level programmes will have their funding removed from next August. According to DfE data, more than 39,500 students were enrolled on these courses in 2020-21.
Another 85, published in a new list on Thursday, will see their funding withdrawn from August 2025. The same data showed another 17,500 enrolments on these courses.
The courses to be defunded across both years (with number of enrolments in brackets) include:
- Pearson BTec level 3 extended diploma in IT (4,840)
- NCFE CACHE Technical level 3 diploma in childcare and education (4,070)
- NCFE CACHE Technical Level 3 certificate in health and social care (4,010)
- Pearson BTEC Level 3 national foundation diploma in engineering (3,790)
There are no national entry requirements for T-Levels, but the high standard of assessment means most colleges require strong GCSE grades to join a programme – leaving some principals concerned about a lack of options for those who do not achieve those grades once the alternative qualifications disappear.
Where we switched off other courses for one of our T-Levels, we lost students who went to do the BTec” – Bill Webster, Bolton College
Bill Webster, principal of Bolton College, told the BBC he saw the value of T-Levels, as did local employers running the work placements, but there was still appetite for alternative courses.
“Where we switched off other courses for one of our T-Levels, we lost students who went to do the BTec,” he said.
Cath Sezen, director of education at the Association of Colleges, helped to develop T-Levels, but says focus should now be on “students for whom a T-Level is not the right option”.
She said: “Often people who are left behind are people who, for whatever reason, have struggled in the school system.”
James Kewin, deputy chief executive of the Sixth Form Colleges Association, has asked the government “to stop the scrapping of BTecs in its tracks”.
He said: “For some students, the T-Level is a fantastic qualification, but our view is it’s not a mass market qualification,” he said.
“The government is attempting to replace, in the BTec, a mass market product with a minority product. And that’s the problem.”
Removing funding
Robert Halfon, minister for skills, apprenticeships and higher education, said T-levels supported the government’s goal to “future-proof education”.
He said most of the 85 courses to be defunded from 2025 had fewer than 100 enrolments in 2020-21.
“Removing funding from the list of qualifications published today streamlines further education and ensures that anyone taking a technical course can be confident that they are getting a qualification respected by employers,” he added.
In April, the Education Select Committee said the DfE risked “constricting student choice” if it progressed with plans to withdraw funding for more established vocational courses like BTecs, collectively known as applied general qualifications.
Earlier this month the prime minister announced a new qualification, the Advanced British Standard, which is designed to put technical and academic education for 16-19 year olds on an equal footing and to ensure all young people leave school knowing the basics in maths and English.
The new Advanced British Standard will “bring together the best of A-Levels and T-Levels into a single new qualification,” claimed the Department for Education. Sunak was accused of being completely out of touch by the National Education Union.
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