Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to her Department's guidance entitled Qualifications that overlap with T Levels, updated on 29 March 2023, whether she has made a recent assessment of the potential impact of the withdrawal of funding for new starts for (a) BTEC and (b) other level 3 qualifications overlapping with T levels from 1 August 2024 on students in further education.

This government is committed to ensuring that students in post-16 education have access to a high quality suite of qualifications that are easy to choose from and that provide the best chances for progression into higher study, or into a skilled job. The department firmly believes that A levels and T Levels are the best route at Level 3 to achieving those outcomes, supported by a range of Alternative Academic Qualifications and Technical Occupational Qualifications that are necessary, high quality and have a clear purpose.

The scale and complexity of the qualifications landscape means it is hard for students to make good choices about what they study. The qualifications currently funded do not consistently offer good progression outcomes and the department’s reforms are designed to fix this problem. The department’s new technical qualifications are based on the Institute for Apprenticeships And Technical Education’s employer led occupational standards, which means that young people can be confident they are studying the skills, knowledge and behaviours that employers need.

An impact assessment was undertaken to consider the post-16 reforms at Level 3 as a whole. It can be read here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1091841/Revised_Review_of_post-16_qualifications_at_level_3_in_England_impact_assessment.pdf.

An additional impact assessment, which is the most recent assessment produced, was conducted on the Wave 1 and 2 overlap list, which can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6421be532fa8480013ec0c23/EIA_updated_final_wave_1_2_T_Level_overlap_inc_Health_and_Science.pdf. These waves correlate to the qualifications defunded as of August 1 2024.