Creative Industries: Qualifications

Lord Watson of Invergowrie Excerpts

Thursday 23rd July 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Watson of Invergowrie (Lab)]

My Lords, my noble friend Lady Keeley has done us all a service by facilitating this important debate in an area—the development of a new landscape for 16 to 19 qualifications —that has been the source of more than a little controversy since the introduction of T-levels in 2020. I was one of a number of noble Lords who joined the campaign by the Protect Student Choice coalition that secured delays to the defunding of applied general qualifications, such as BTECs, meaning that at least 300,000 16 to 19 year-olds have either already studied qualifications that would otherwise have been scrapped or will be studying them in the years ahead. Retaining AGQs has enabled many young people to progress to higher education and/or skilled employment, a journey that would otherwise have been out of reach, and it has avoided the creation of a “qualifications gap” that tens of thousands of students would have fallen through.

The announcement in March by the Minister, who I am delighted will be continuing in her post, of a stay of execution for popular courses while alternatives are developed was most welcome. That said, the problematic nature of the package of reforms to 16 to 19 education goes beyond the timetable. The most important of them is the replacement of numerous existing diplomas with V-levels, which are being designed as A-level size equivalents. The first three V-levels will begin next September. One of the causes of concern is the speed with which they will be introduced. I add that the lessons of T-levels should be noted.

T-levels are well intentioned, and I have always said that I want them to succeed, but their combination of tight specialism and their level of difficulty, as other noble Lords have mentioned, means that there are many young people for whom they are simply not the right choice, and they have not yet become established. Indeed, in the sixth academic year—that is the one that has just finished—only 27,000 students began a T-level. Part of the problem with T-levels is that they are not widely enough understood and still struggle to gain recognition. The same must not be allowed to happen with V-levels.

In the creative sector, T-levels remain tiny in scale, and providers say they cannot grow to replace the existing provision. UK Screen Alliance represents companies in the animation, visual effects and video game sectors, which together contribute more than £10 billion to the UK economy and employ almost 50,000 highly skilled people. They are among Britain’s most productive industries and are repeatedly identified by government as growth priorities. At the moment, the future of the sector skills pipeline is threatened by the Government’s determination to impose—this is possibly the phrase of the afternoon—a one-size-fits-all approach, which is quite unsuited to the creative sector.

As my noble friend Lady Caine said, more than a decade ago, employers in those industries recognised that the education system was simply not producing enough young people with the right mix of creativity, technical ability, mathematics and digital skills, so, being creative people, they created their own pipeline. In the 10 years since the level 3 qualification, the AIM extended diploma, was introduced, more than 3,000 students have completed the programme, with nearly three-quarters of those young people progressing into higher education, with others moving into apprenticeships and employment.

The students tackle live industry briefs, receive feedback from professionals, visit studios and showcase their work to leading companies. This is employer engagement at its best. Yet despite its success, the qualification faces defunding because it does not fit neatly within the architecture of T-levels and occupational standards. As other noble Lords have highlighted, T-levels involve industry placements, which rarely work in the creative industries, and for colleges in rural, coastal or disadvantaged areas, mandatory placements can become an impossible barrier, even after recent announcements on placement flexibilities.

My noble friend Lord Knight—still an artful dodger after all these years—spoke of the use of portfolios in assessments. Creative employers do not recruit on the basis of exam performance alone; they use portfolios, collaboration and demonstrated ability. The sector’s own qualifications reflect that reality through continuous assessment and group project-based learning, not just talent, in a way that reflects how creative work actually happens. The AIM diploma is a success and yet it faces defunding in 2029. I have to ask: where is the sense in that?

As the University of the Arts London Awarding Body has said, the DfE should not introduce exams, prescribed controlled conditions or prescribed content into creative subjects by default. Larger, scalable and successful qualifications that already contribute to the creative industries should be retained. I suggest that the DfE should listen more to creative industry employers, because employer engagement and buy-in will be key to the ultimate success of T-levels—in any sector, it should be said.

I want to say something about a study and skills option that only one other Peer has mentioned so far today —it was the noble Baroness, Lady Garden—and that is university technical colleges. UTCs seem to fly beneath the radar, but they provide an important alternative to a predominantly academic route through secondary and post-16 education. Working with universities and local employers, they offer specialist technical pathways including the creative industries, which are designed around local skills needs. It is important to point out that they account for 2.9% of all T-level enrolments, despite representing only 1.2% of schools. I would be interested to hear from my noble friend what role she believes UTCs can play in delivering both T-levels and V-levels, as well as courses in the creative subjects.

In conclusion, the Government and DfE simply must take account of what the creative sector is saying about the potential impact on that sector of the replacement of current level 3 qualifications with T-levels and V-levels. To paraphrase my noble friend Lord John: if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.