Oral Answers to Questions

Gareth Snell Excerpts

Monday 1st December 2025 Commons Chamber

[Gareth Snell (Stoke-on-Trent Central) (Lab/Co-op)]

4. What steps her Department is taking to increase the number of vocational qualifications for post-16 learners.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education (Josh MacAlister)]

Our curriculum and assessment review recommended the introduction of new V-levels, which will simplify the qualification landscape while giving students choice and flexibility. The Department for Education is now consulting on plans to introduce the qualifications. We are also proposing the introduction of new T-levels.

[Gareth Snell]

I draw the House’s attention to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests as a governor of the City of Stoke-on-Trent sixth-form college. The Minister will know that the further education sector welcomes V-levels to fill the gap between T-levels and A-levels, but he will also know that the Department is continuing with a programme of defunding some existing BTECs before the V-levels come online, meaning that some young people will be denied the opportunity of the right course for them during their FE career. Will he seriously consider freezing the defunding programme until V-levels are online, so that we protect student choice for students now and in the future?

[Josh MacAlister]

I thank my hon. Friend for raising this important issue, and I will be happy to ask my noble Friend in the other place to meet him. The qualifications that we are defunding are large qualifications that directly overlap with T-levels. The Government’s policy is very clearly to back T-levels as a good choice for students in colleges.