The Department for Education has launched the next stage of its review of post-16 qualifications at Level 3.

These latest proposals include confirmation that there will be funding for vocational qualifications such as Cambridge Technicals, that prepare students for university, provided the qualifications meet the proposed criteria.

The review follows earlier consultation during 2019 on the government’s plans to streamline qualifications and simplify choices for post-16 students, funding only those that are high quality, have a distinct purpose, are truly necessary and support progression to successful outcomes.

This second stage of the review focuses entirely on Level 3 qualifications setting out the principles for post-16 qualifications that are needed alongside T Levels and A Levels. Changes will not be made to T Levels, A Levels or AS Levels as a result of this consultation as they are not in the scope of the review.

Proposals are set out under two routes: ‘academic’ (the academic route includes applied general qualifications such as Cambridge Technicals) and ‘technical’.

Academic route

The second-stage consultation confirms that, in some subjects, qualifications with different delivery models to A Levels provide real value for students seeking to progress to higher education. Proposals include:

• Funding alternatives to A Levels which enable progression to higher education
• Funding qualifications designed to be taken alongside A Levels where they support progression to higher education and provide content distinct from A Levels
• Making reformed qualifications available for first teaching in September 2024
• Removing funding for qualifications that do not have a place in the new 16 to 19 landscape from September 2024.

Technical route

Proposals include:

• Establishing T Levels as the classroom-based route for 16 to 19 year-olds or, where there is no relevant T Level, technical qualifications that enable progression into occupational areas
• Putting employers at the heart of the qualification-approval process by aligning qualifications to employer-led standards wherever possible
• Reviewing and removing funding from existing qualifications that overlap with T Levels from August 2023 for qualifications overlapping with waves 1 and 2 T Levels, and from August 2024 for waves 3 and 4. Approved qualifications that offer specialist competence or do not overlap with T Levels will be available from the same dates.

Qualifications in both routes will have to meet new criteria to be approved for public funding.

Qualifications for adults

The consultation also proposes to make more qualifications, including T Levels, available to adults so that more adults can upskill or retrain. It’s proposed that reformed adult qualifications will be introduced from 2023.

Level 2

A separate call for evidence will follow on Level 2 and below qualifications, to enable the DfE to better understand how these qualifications fit into the post-16 landscape. More detailed proposals for Level 2 will follow next year.

The consultation closes on 15 January 2021.