Scrapping BTecs in favour of a renewed focus on a three-pronged approach to further education will ‘obliterate opportunities’ for thousands of young people across the North East and only serve to widen the region’s skills gap.
That’s the verdict of experienced college principal Darren Hankey who is urging Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson to ‘pause and review’ plans to defund hundreds of vocational courses in favour of a renewed focus on T Levels.
After this week’s King’s Speech stopped short of detailing plans for post-16 education — instead referencing new umbrella body Skills England with its remit to bring together employers, unions and training providers in a bid to better prepare the workforce of the future — concerns are growing that Labour stands on the brink of breaking a key pre-election promise.
And while the proposed reform of the apprenticeship levy is a positive move, there are fears that pressing ahead with plans to scrap BTecs could adversely affect the potential employability of young people unconvinced by alternative routes into work.
“The fact that there was no mention of pausing and reviewing the further education curriculum reforms in the King’s Speech is disappointing to say the least,” admits Darren, principal and chief executive at Hartlepool College of Further Education.
“Many people who are now in power were advocating this approach when they were in opposition. Furthermore, those who have also just come to power have espoused a new way of doing politics, moving away from over-promising — for example 40 new hospitals and a plan to fix social care — and delivering little. Sadly, the wall of silence around this just seems to indicate more of the same.”
Earlier this week, the publication of an interim report into students’ views on T Levels suggested there is much work to do when it comes to successfully integrating the new courses into the post-16 suite of qualifications.
And Darren has enlisted the help of the town’s newly elected Labour MP Jonathan Brash to put his concerns to government.
Earlier this month Mr Brash wrote to Ms Phillipson calling for a ‘full review of all post-16 education to ensure that colleges are offering our young people the skills needed for the future’.
“I am not against T Levels but I’m very much in favour of a review,” explains Darren. “In effect, offering students a straight choice between A Levels, T Levels and apprenticeships would obliterate opportunities for young people in Hartlepool, across the North East and beyond.
- Read more: Lyndon Longhorne’s iron will
- Read more: Orchestral manoeuvres in the North
“Let’s say we have 500 students doing Level 3 engineering and they need to switch from BTecs to T Levels. T Levels require that students undertake a 45-day industry placement and I just don’t think we have the regional economy to sustain that.
“I think we’d be lucky to find placements for 100 of those students but what would the other 400 do?
“Another benefit of the BTec courses is that they blend in with the apprenticeship programme. Students can start a college-based qualification and the employers we work with know they can transition to an apprenticeship.
“That blend isn’t there with T Levels. A student could start studying for a T Level and then secure an apprenticeship but they would have to start from scratch with the apprenticeship. There’s no recognition of prior learning with T Levels.”
T Levels have experienced a series of teething problems after the ‘gold standard’ vocational qualification for post-16 students in England was introduced in 2020. Low uptake and high drop-out have led to fresh concerns around the decision to defund hundreds of existing BTec courses. Many have already been scrapped with plans in place to defund a further 318 technical qualifications from July 2025.
A qualitative research study by the Edge Foundation, in collaboration with Professor Kevin Orr, confirms students share their teachers’ concerns that T Levels are far from the finished article.
Published earlier this week, the interim report — What do students really think about T Levels — shed light on conversations with 210 students across the UK and found:
- Students were being steered into T Levels, rather than making their own, informed choice.
- T Levels are not well established — and this is affecting young people’s opportunities after completion.
- Industry placements are students’ favourite part of the T Level yet, in practice they have revealed many issues.
- There is ambiguity in the teaching style and structure of T Levels.
Nevertheless, former Prime Minister Gordon Brown believes T Levels should be here to stay and feels abandoning the qualification would be ‘calamitous and costly’. Writing in a report funded by Lord Sainsbury — one of the original architects of T Levels — Mr Brown argues: “T Levels have the potential to create a new skilled workforce for the next three-quarters of our century with the promise of good pay in the very sectors of the economy where we are experiencing key shortages and in the industries of the future.
“Low-quality technical courses might be cheap to teach and easy to pass but they suppress talent rather than release it, and the reality is that employers don’t really value such courses when taking on new workers.
“A current fear is that those with a vested interest in marketing and selling their own lower-quality courses will attempt to pull the wool over parliamentarians’ eyes and argue that Labour should pause and review the technical education system yet again. These calls should be ignored.”
Darren disagrees. “Gordon Brown and Lord Sainsbury are wrong,” he insists. “Tens of thousands of young people will be denied opportunities if technical courses continue to be defunded. This will drive up the numbers of students no longer in education, employment or training (NEETs) which, in itself, will be costly.
“And I don’t think Mr Brown’s comments are a good look for Labour. They give the impression of a party promising one thing in opposition — and very vocally — and then reneging on that promise in government. It undermines the public’s trust.”
Darren is referring in part to Ms Phillipson’s pre-election pledge that Labour would pause and review the plan to scrap BTecs once in power. Last summer the Houghton and Sunderland South MP — then Shadow Education Secretary — wrote to the Protect Student Choice campaign describing the ‘Government’s reckless treatment of our nation’s further education sector’.
Although Ms Phillipson underlined Labour’s support of T Levels in principle she added: “Labour believes the way in which the transition from BTecs to T Levels is being handled by the government is putting the broader success of T Levels as a new qualification at risk, and constraining opportunities for young people.
“The next Labour government will ensure all students are able to complete their courses and will review the diversity of options at Level 3 before making any further changes.”
Darren is concerned that Mr Brown’s comments will persuade Ms Phillipson and colleagues to row back on that promise and fears thousands of students unsuited to A Levels and T Levels — and unprepared for an apprenticeship — will be lost to post-16 education.
“The previous government was building towards a baccalaureate-style qualification known as the Advanced British Standard,” he adds. “The vocational/technical route has always been a little bit confusing and this sought to provide much-needed clarity.
“But we’re not there yet and there needs to be more on offer to students other than A Levels, T Levels and apprenticeships.
“Nobody in the further education sector supports reform at the expense of BTecs. I’m still not sure what the thinking was behind scrapping them and it’s difficult to get an answer from policy makers on that decision.
“We’re left scratching our heads and wondering how we got to this point.
“If I was being cynical, I might suggest that the decision to scrap BTecs was driven by a desire to reduce demand so that the government didn’t have to pay colleges too much to educate people.
“And then, if I was being even more cynical, there’s been lots of talk about the so-called ‘Mickey Mouse’ degrees on offer in the higher education sector.
“Perhaps some people in the previous administration thought that students who do BTecs go on to study these courses at university. Maybe they saw an opportunity to close that route. But that’s just me being cynical — I have no evidence to back that up.
“I’m just trying to work out why a decision that’s proved so unpopular within the further education sector was taken in the first place.”
The Protect Student Choice campaign, a coalition of 29 organisations that represent and support staff and students in schools, colleges and universities, remains deeply concerned about further education reform.
It has called on the new government to:
- Within one month of a general election, formally pause the defunding of Level 3 qualifications. Confirm a single defunding date (1st August 2027) to ensure that students can enrol on all 134 existing applied general qualifications (AGQs) up to and including 2026/27;
- Agree a revised set of principles to guide a streamlined and refocused review of Level 3 qualifications within the current three-route framework;
- Formally discard plans to a) present students with a choice of A Levels, T Levels and a small number of ‘alternative’ qualifications approved by exception and b) limit the ability of colleges and schools to combine qualifications;
- Oversee a review of T Levels involving students, employers, colleges, schools and a broad range of other stakeholders to identify the key adaptations and flexibilities needed to ensure they can play a more meaningful role in the future qualifications landscape.
Catherine Sezen, director of education policy at the Association of Colleges, said: “T Levels are not suited to every student who wants to take a vocational qualification at Level 3 and the 45-day placement is stretching employer capacity.
“The modest total of 23,500 student enrolments on T Levels needs to be put into the context of 250,000 young people on current vocational technical qualifications. Even with rapid growth, we expect the total number of T Level enrolments to be less than 100,000.”
Darren — who points to the fact that Ofsted rates 90 per cent of colleges in the FE sector as good or better — believes the quality of teaching on BTec courses is not an issue.
He adds: “The intent behind T Levels is right but what needs looking at is how the plans for further education in the future are being implemented.
“I was concerned when Labour’s manifesto was published that the issue wasn’t dealt with in any detail and was simply referred to as post-16 strategy.
- Read more: Knowledge exchange can drive growth
- Read more: How parts of the region are tackling climate change
“The Liberal Democrats, by contrast, explicitly talked about pausing and reviewing qualification reform and curriculum reform in their manifesto and that’s what’s required.”
In his letter to Ms Phillipson, Mr Brash asked for clarification on ‘discussions you have had around an immediate pause and review of the curriculum to avoid our Level 3 providers sending an entire academic year of students into the unknown’. The QT understands he is still awaiting a response.
“Jonathan used to be a teacher before going into politics and he was a governor at the sixth form college in Hartlepool,” adds Darren “He’s very aware of the issue and he was quick to write to the Education Secretary on my behalf.
“There’s been lots on social media about what Labour has done in its first two weeks in power and much of it — around Rwanda, onshore wind and so on — is very impressive. It would be nice if we could hear something about a curriculum pause and review.”
Darren accepts that these are confusing times for post-16 students considering their immediate future and points out that staff are under increasing pressure to navigate their way through a system in flux.
“I think we just need to pause for breath and understand the adverse impact that implementing the new curriculum will have on those students from poorer backgrounds,” adds Darren
“The government says employers are in the driving seat when it comes to shaping policy — well, employers seem to like BTecs and what they offer. BTecs also have a good track record of getting young people, especially from disadvantaged backgrounds, into higher education.
“Many of the qualifications that are being defunded this year and next seem to tick a lot of boxes where employers are concerned.”
