Qualifications

(asked on 21st February 2022) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when he plans to provide further information on the timeline for implementation of reforms to post-16 qualifications at Level 3, including funding criteria and the list of qualifications to be included in the first wave of defunding.


Answered by
Alex Burghart Portrait
Alex Burghart
Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
This question was answered on 24th February 2022

In November 2021, my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, announced an extra year before reforms to level 3 qualifications are introduced, providing an extra year to support the growth of T Levels and give more notice to allow providers and awarding organisations to prepare. This means qualifications that duplicate the content and purpose of wave 1 and 2 T Levels will now have public funding approval withdrawn from 2024 (previously 2023). We plan to publish a provisional list of these qualifications shortly.

All qualifications approved for funding in future will need to meet rigorous quality standards. We are working closely with Ofqual and the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education as they develop the approval process, subject to the passage of the Skills Bill. We will publish further information on the funding and approval criteria in due course.

The department has also recently announced that the Digital pathfinder will be merged into the first full cycle of approvals alongside other reformed technical qualifications with first delivery in 2025.

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