Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government to what extent they envisage that digital skills, English, maths and literacy will be included in the core content for T level qualifications.

As recommended by the Sainsbury Review, in our public consultation on T levels we proposed that occupation-specific mathematics, English and digital skills are embedded within each technical qualification. This will ensure that students continue to develop and apply these skills throughout their T level programme, supporting progression to a range of occupations. We also proposed that T level panels should be able to include higher standards of mathematics and English, such as core mathematics or A level mathematics, if it is needed for employment in their sector. This would be subject to approval from the Institute for Apprenticeships.

We plan to publish our response to the public consultation later this spring. In the meantime, we are working with a range of mathematics, English and digital experts to ensure that the content of the first three T levels to be delivered from September 2020 is coherent, at the appropriate level and supports progression. This includes working with the Royal Society’s Advisory Committee on Maths Education, in line with the recommendations of the Smith Review of post-16 mathematics.