Education: Advanced British Standard Debate
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Baroness Garden of Frognal
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Education: Advanced British Standard
Baroness Garden of Frognal Excerpts(6 months, 3 weeks ago)
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Baroness Barran (Con)
As I said in my Answer, there will need to be extensive consultation, but we hope to work closely with the Scottish Parliament on this.
Baroness Garden of Frognal (LD)
My Lords, A-levels and T-levels should never be the only options for 16 year-olds. There are many highly talented, creative and practical students with work-based skills which are essential for the economy. Can the Minister reassure us that BTEC vocational qualifications will continue to be available to ensure that these students get their work accredited?
Baroness Barran (Con)
I am afraid that I cannot reassure the noble Baroness of that. She will be aware that we have carried out extensive reform of our qualifications and will know that, as of August 2022, we had removed 5,500 qualifications with low or no enrolments. However, we still have the most complicated and duplicative landscape of qualifications in this area —at least 7,000 available qualifications—which we will address through our reform programme.