Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether students will be able to enrol on all existing applied general qualifications up to and including the 2026-27 academic year.

In July 2024, my Right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, announced a short pause to the defunding of qualifications to enable a review of post-16 qualification reforms at Level 3 and below. The review will begin immediately and will examine the current planned qualification reforms as well as looking at how to ensure young people have high-quality Level 3 pathways.

To allow space for this short review, the department paused the planned removal of 16 to 19 funding from Level 3 qualifications in Construction and the Built Environment, Digital, Education and Early Years, and Health and Science that was due to take place on 31 July 2024. This will mean that, subject to any commercial decisions made by awarding organisations on these qualifications, these qualifications can be funded for 16 to 19 year old students in the 2024/25 academic year. The list of qualifications that will continue to be available until September 2025 is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/qualifications-that-overlap-with-t-levels?_hsenc=p2ANqtz--hLlQbHfWVlKlYVePivcjDOKIc1BLwm20ObP9qiGiSsqjYOBoL7Bc6uRQOeVggoXVSHHjy. If a student is enrolled on a two-year course of study in September 2024, they will be funded for the full length of the qualification.

The department will conclude and communicate the outcomes of the short review into qualifications reform at Level 3 and below before the end of 2024.