Three more T Levels have been shelved due to low demand from students and employers.
The government has confirmed that planned T Levels in catering and beauty will no longer go ahead. The healthcare science T Level, which has run since 2021, will enrol its final cohort of students this September.
This means six planned T Levels have now been cancelled.
Onsite construction, run by City and Guilds, was binned in December following three years of low demand.
Hairdressing and barbering got snipped last January as colleges were preparing for September starts with ministers citing low demand from employers (despite forking out to develop the qualifications for two years). A “scoping exercise” was launched at the time to test the viability of a T Level qualification in beauty.
The Department for Education confirmed today that both beauty and catering will not go ahead due to projected low demand.
And a planned T Level in HR was terminated back in 2021 when no awarding organisation could be found to develop it.
The Department for Education also confirmed today that the T Level in healthcare science, run by NCFE, will end this September because an “evaluation” has determined it doesn’t meet the needs of students and employers.
Data published this morning showed just 136 students started the healthcare science T Level in September 2024. For comparison, health had 3,772 starts and science had 365.
Healthcare science content will instead be “consolidated” within the new generation 2 health and science T Levels (more on these below) from September 2026.
Colleges that have received capital funding grants for facilities to teach the healthcare science T Level can keep the money.
Both the current and previous governments hailed T Levels as the “gold standard” and “employer-led” qualifications. Yet millions of pounds have been spent developing qualifications for which there is seemingly little demand from employers and students.
Pearson scoops contracts
Pearson has been handed contracts worth over £15 million to take over the T Levels in health and science.
The awarding giant, which also runs BTECs, has been granted exclusive licenses, currently held by NCFE, to develop and run generation 2 versions of the qualifications from September 2026.
It means the awarding body now holds six of the nine generation 2 T Level contracts awarded so far, totalling £32 million.
Freya Thomas Monk, managing director of Pearson Qualifications, said: “Building a strong flow of talent into the health and science sectors is vital to the government’s mission of supporting an NHS that is fit for the future.
“As the largest T Level provider, we are committed to providing qualifications that enable students to progress and thrive in these sectors.”
The contracts, worth £9.7 million for health and £5.7 million for science, run until July 2034. They were supposed to be announced in October.
The first batch of generation 2 T Level license holders, covering education and early years, construction and digital courses, were announced following a competitive re-tender process in August.
That procurement round resulted in four contracts changing hands. Two construction T Levels, first held by City and Guilds, were awarded to WJEC, and two digital T Levels, first held by NCFE, were awarded to Pearson. NCFE retained education and early years.
The next procurement, this time for T Levels in engineering and manufacturing, finance, management and accounting, is due to begin this spring.
Digital rebrand
DfE has also announced T Levels in digital subjects will be renamed this September to make them “clearer”.
Digital production design and development will become digital software development.
Digital support services will become digital support and security.
And digital business services will become digital data analytics.
Crazy how ill thought out those T levels have been, yes some are very good and we can all understand the idea behind them. But you can’t argue that this has been a poorly implemented qualification of this was supposed to replace vocationals this year.
DofE say they listen to employers but really they ignore federation of small business and virtually all other employer feedback and don’t give them any support and are then surprised when so many employers don’t want to participate.
T levels are without doubt the best qualification, BTECs are completely outdated but T levels are getting so little support in important areas it is tragic.
The country’s future is being really badly managed here.
If you were running a barbershop or a beauty salon or a catering business, why would you sign up to take a T level student, it’s a TERRIBLE DEAL! They are small business people worried about staying in business and keeping their business open and the deal offered to them is take a 17 yrs old , no experience , does not know much, hopefully they’ll turn up, they’ll be there 1 day a week or for a few weeks only, and you as the business have to train them , and of course pay ALL the extra costs of having them there.
Of course they don’t want to do it.
Department of Education has to offer these businesses a far better deal, and pay their bills for taking in these students!
I disagree the student would be an extra ‘free’ set of hands. There shouldn’t be any extra cost to the employer in this industry. They can do alot, and learn so much. This is the future set of workers we need to inspire.
Respectfully I don’t think you have ever operated a small business, the costs of this are significant and self evident, employer time very substantial, it is not free, extra operations costs, extra site costs etc. when you are operating your business inspiring people isn’t at the top of your list, staying open in the middle of a downturn/recession is.
Businesses like us and many small businesses are willing to help but there has to be a realist , real world approach to what businesses face, without help on costs the vast majority of small business including most of those who would be willing to help say no. Take a look at the above they have said no already.