The new government has paused reforms to post-16 qualifications at level 3 and below, halting the planned defunding of some BTECs and other alternatives to T-levels.
Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, pledged to pause and review the reforms last year, as revealed by our sister paper FE Week.
Today, she told the House of Commons she was “pleased to announce that the department will undertake a short pause and review of post 16 qualification reform at level 3 and below, concluding before the end of the year”.
“This means that the defunding scheduled for next week will be paused.”
She added that the coming year “will also see further developments in the rollout of new T-levels, which will ensure that young people continue to benefit from high quality technical qualifications that help them to thrive”.
“And I will update the house shortly with more detail tomorrow.”
The news follows growing concern over whether Labour would follow through with its pledge, which was not mentioned in its manifesto or after the party’s election victory.
Former prime minister Gordon Brown and T-levels architect Lord David Sainsbury waded into the debate last week to publicly urge Phillipson to “ignore” calls from those with “vested interests” to pause the reforms.
But others, such as former education secretary Lord Blunkett, who backed the Protect Student Choice campaign, warned that cutting courses would lead to the “collapse” of a pipeline of trainees to key sectors such as health and social care.
Courses were due to be slashed next week
Under the plans, the DfE was to defund 134 qualifications whose content “overlaps” with the first 10 T-levels introduced in 2020 and 2021 from August 1, 2024.
A further 85 qualifications that compete with the six T-levels introduced in 2022 were then set for the chop in August 2025, while another 71 courses that clashed with five more T-levels introduced over the past two years were also going to be defunded from 2025.
On top of this, a new DfE approvals process for retaining funding for other level 3 alternatives would have excluded other popular courses in health and social care, engineering, science and law.
Analysis by the Sixth Form Colleges Association, which secured Labour’s promise of a pause and review, had warned that at least 155,000 young people would be left without a suitable post-16 course from 2026 as a result of the government’s plans.
Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, welcomed today’s announcement but urged Phillipson to pause the reforms until 2027.
“While the confirmation that the review will be concluded by the end of the year is very encouraging, there is not yet detail on how long the pause will be in place.
“School and college leaders, and their students, need certainty about the courses that can be run for the next two years. We therefore urge the government to extend the pause until 2027 for all of the current applied general qualifications.”
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