Four T Level contracts have changed hands following the government’s first relicensing procurement – and the winning awarding bodies will receive up to double the amount of funding originally touted.
The Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (IfATE) today announced the successful bidders of the first “generation 2” T Level contracts following a competitive tender.
Seven contracts, first rolled out in 2020 and 2021, were up for grabs to develop and deliver T Levels in early years, construction and digital.
Just three of the contracts in scope will stay with the same awarding organisation that held the initial contract.
Awarding giant City & Guilds decided to not even bid for the two contracts it previously held – building services engineering for construction and onsite construction. These contracts have now been taken over by WJEC Eduqas.
Elsewhere, NCFE’s two digital T Level contracts have been switched to Pearson after the former decided to only re-tender for its education and early years contract. It means Pearson now delivers all digital-related T Level contracts (see table below).
A City & Guilds spokesperson told FE Week: “Earlier this year, after careful consideration, we chose not to re-tender for these construction pathways as it allows us to concentrate our efforts on other areas.”
The awarding body will continue to deliver several other existing T Level contracts, including in engineering & manufacturing, management & administration, and agriculture.
An NCFE spokesperson said the decision to step back from digital pathways was made to “allow us to focus on our core sector specialisms and ensure the highest quality of T Level qualifications and assessments for our learners in fewer sectors”.
“We’d like to reassure our digital T Level providers that we will continue to support all current learners to success and will ensure a smooth transition to Pearson as the new awarding organisation, minimising disruption and unnecessary administrative burden,” the spokesperson added.
It comes amid sector concern that awarding bodies have been operating T Level contracts at a loss. In February, FE Week reported that NCFE has written off over £2.5 million because of low student recruitment on the flagship qualifications.
The government appears to have reacted by substantially increasing the contract values for each T Level.
NCFE’s education and childcare T Level, for example, was originally advertised at a value of £5.5 million in the gen 2 tender. Today’s announcement shows this has increased by 65 per cent to £9.12 million.
One of the construction T Levels taken over by WJEC Eduqas from City & Guilds has almost doubled.
The onsite construction contract value has risen from £3.9 million to £7.64 million. And the building services engineering for construction is now worth £6.25 million compared to £3.96 million first advertised.
Addressing the contract increases, an IfATE spokesperson told FE Week: “As the programme has matured, IfATE and awarding organisations have understood more in terms of the cost of delivery and reflected this through pricing decisions. Where values have increased, it recognises the cost of delivering a complex and long-term contract to achieve provision of a high-quality set of T Levels.”
‘The growing importance of T Levels’
IfATE revealed other steps to make T Levels more “commercially attractive” to awarding organisations in its gen 2 contracts tender, through a funding model that would guarantee a certain level of profit.
The new contracts will feature a “demand-sensitive” adaptive pricing model which will mean awarding organisations can charge providers higher fees if student numbers are lower than expected. Fees could also be reduced if student numbers are higher.
Awarding organisations with gen 2 T Level licenses will be allowed to make a “one-off adjustment” to the entry fee it charges providers if the projected number of students increases or decreases over the contract term.
The move was slated by college leaders when FE Week broke the news earlier this year for forcing providers to pick up the risk for low T Level recruitment at a time when students and parents are questioning the value of the qualifications in light of the previous government’s plans to replace them with the Advanced British Standard. The new Labour government has however confirmed it will not take forward the ABS proposal.
In April the government announced it is also undertaking a “route-by-route” review of T Level content and assessment in a bid to boost recruitment and retention and to ensure the courses are “manageable at scale”, amid high dropout rates.
These gen 2 contracts will run from August 2024 to 31 July 2033. A separate procurement round has taken place for the T Levels in health and science, though the results have not yet been released.
Chris Morgan, IfATE’s deputy director for commercial, said the quango was “really pleased” to welcome WJEC to T Levels, because the “involvement of a new awarding organisation shows the growing importance and influence of the T Level programme, given renewed commitment and impetus under the new government”.
WJEC Eduqas chief executive Ian Morgan, said the “achievement reflects our strong knowledge base, extensive experience and broad expertise in the development, delivery and awarding of qualifications”.
He added that his awarding body will work “in partnership” with EAL to develop and deliver its T Level contracts.
Suzanne Hall, strategic lead for product (technical and professional) at Pearson, said: “We are pleased to have won these four contracts, and for the first time to be running all of the digital T Levels. We look forward to using our expertise in developing rigorous and high-quality qualifications and to continue to play our part in developing talent for these important sectors.”
Philip Le Feuvre, NCFE’s chief operating officer, added: “NCFE is delighted to have been selected by IfATE as its education and early years T Level delivery partner.
“This T Level helps to equip students with the skills and knowledge to enter the workplace or higher education and make a difference to tens of thousands of children in their critically important early years.”
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