DfE pauses post-16 qualifications reform and BTEC defunding

The new government has partially paused reforms to post-16 qualifications at level 3 and below, halting this year’s 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 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.”

While all BTEC and other level 3 vocational qualifications in line for the chop will now be reviewed, FE Week understands the pause only applies to courses set to be defunded from August 1, 2024.

The schedule to scrap applied general qualifications (AGQs) in 2025 and 2026 is still on the table pending the Department for Education’s review.

‘What government has announced today is no pause’

The Sixth Form Colleges Association, which co-ordinates the Protect Student Choice campaign, accused Phillipson of reneging on the party’s promise made in opposition after today’s announcement.

An SFCA spokesperson said: “We understand the short review planned between now and the end of the year will include AGQs and may or may not reverse some defunding decisions made by the previous government. Colleges and schools will not know until December this year what qualifications they can offer in September 2025, which is far too late. 

“The Protect Student Choice campaign set out a clear plan that showed why a two-year pause was required. What the government has announced today is no pause.”

The news follows growing concern in the FE sector 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 David 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.

What is actually being paused and reviewed?

Under the previous government’s plans, the DfE was to defund 134 qualifications, which attract around 40,000 annual enrolments, whose content “overlaps” with the first 10 T Levels introduced in 2020 and 2021 from August 1, 2024.

This part of the reform has now been paused.

A further 85 qualifications that compete with the six T Levels introduced in 2022 were then put in line 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 proposes to exclude other popular AGQs in health and social care, engineering, science and law.

FE Week understands both of these parts of the reform, which attract around 300,000 starts a year, have so far not been paused, but will be reviewed by the end of December 2024.

Analysis by the SFCA previously warned that at least 155,000 young people will be left without a suitable post-16 course from 2026 as a result of the government’s plans.

College leaders need certainty 

Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, urged Phillipson to pause the reforms until 2027.

He said: “It is hugely welcome that the new government has listened to the concerns of the profession and announced this pause and review. Applied general qualifications, such as BTECs, are a really important qualification for so many young people, and help them progress to further study or employment.

“However, 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.”

Simon Ashworth, deputy chief executive and director of policy of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, said: “There is a degree of urgency over this – concluding this review by the end of the year is ambitious but necessary so that learners and providers understand where they stand.”

David Hughes, chief executive of the Association of Colleges, said he is pleased Phillipson has been “listening and carefully examining the evidence”.

He added: “Pausing defunding and undertaking a rapid review of the implementation will come as a great relief to college staff up and down the country. It means that students wanting to attain qualifications in, for instance, social care and electrical will be able to do that and help meet the enormous skills shortages in those two sectors, and there are other subjects like that which will need to be carefully examined in the coming weeks.”