The Department for Education will be delaying any de-funding of post-16 qualifications at Level 3 by a year.

In a speech to mark the second reading of the Skills and Post-16 Education Bill, Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi confirmed the reform timetable would be implemented a year later than originally scheduled.  This extra year will allow the DfE to support the growth of T Levels and give more notice to providers, Awarding Organisations, employers, students and parents so that they can prepare for the changes.

This means that reformed Level 3 ‘technical’ qualifications will be available for teaching from September 2024.  Level 3 ‘academic’ qualifications, which include almost all of OCR's Cambridge Technicals, will be reformed and available from September 2025.  The Secretary of State confirmed the existing policy that, whilst the dominant qualifications in the ‘academic’ route will be A Levels, funding will also be retained for others where applied qualifications are taken alongside A Levels to help provide progression to Higher Education.

The Education Secretary is convinced that other qualifications are needed as well as T Levels and A Levels: “It is quite likely we will see …applied general style qualifications continuing to play an important role in 16-19 education, for the foreseeable future”.