Hundreds of leaders make last-ditch plea for BTECs bonfire pause

More than 450 school and college leaders have made a last-ditch plea with the education secretary to stop the “madness” and pause the planned cull of BTECs for at least one year.

In a letter to Bridget Phillipson (pictured), principals and headteachers warn that last month’s announcement to only “review” the previous government’s defunding plans by the end of December 2024 causes huge “uncertainty and anxiety” for staff and students.

When in opposition, the Labour party promised to “pause and review” the Conservative government’s plan to scrap applied general qualification (AGQ) courses.

But in July, the new Labour government announced it would only pause the defunding of a limited number of level 3 qualifications set to be defunded from August 2024 – which had minimal enrolments and were already removed from most school and college rosters. 

Instead, the government proposes to conduct a “focused review” of the AGQs and other qualifications set to be defunded from 2025 and beyond. This review will conclude by the end of this calendar year, meaning that schools and colleges will not know what courses they can offer in the 2025/26 academic year until December 2024 at the earliest. 

The Department for Education claims this approach “strikes the right balance between providing the sector with certainty and not leaving poor quality qualifications in the system for longer”.

But school and college leaders disagree, writing in today’s letter that this approach will make it “extremely difficult for us to provide effective information, advice, and guidance to young people, or ensure that the right staff are in place with the right skill sets”.

Altaf Hussain, principal of Luton Sixth Form College, said: “Our open evenings take place in November and yet we will not have any clarity on the courses we can offer until December – that is madness”.

Darren Hankey, principal of Hartlepool College, added: “The ongoing uncertainty is unhelpful – our first open event for current year 11 pupils is in a couple of weeks’ time. Prospectuses, websites and other forms of communication need to be updated. It is unclear what we can tell prospective students and their parents/carers – business leaders are also asking questions. This is a mess.”

The government’s level 3 and below qualifications review is part of its technical education reforms, and aims to shift students from AGQs to T Levels.

York College has been delivering T Levels since the courses launched in 2020. Its principal, Ken Merry, said his college knows “first-hand that the solution is not as simple as switching from AGQs to T Levels”.

He added: “That’s why it’s so important for the government to stick to the promise made in opposition and pause the defunding of qualifications”.

The 455 signatories lead institutions that between them educate 387,000 16- to 19-year-olds – a third of the 1.18 million sixth formers funded by the government in 2023/24.

Their letter, co-ordinated by the Protect Student Choice campaign, has urged Phillipson to announce an “immediate pause to the defunding of applied general qualifications and confirm that students will be able to enrol on all existing AGQs up to and including the 2025/26 academic year”.

This one-year pause is the “minimum required to ensure that young people are not disadvantaged by your proposed reforms”, the letter added.

The campaign sent Phillipson an initial letter pleading for a two-year pause last month after her announcement, but the education secretary refused to budge at the time.

On August 2 she replied and explained that pausing future defunding of qualifications at this stage could “prejudice the findings of this short review”. She advised colleges to make clear which of their courses may not be available. 

“When communicating with prospective students, colleges should be clear if a qualification they are interested in offering may not be available because it is currently on a defunding list,” Phillipson said.

“However, the position will be clarified before the turn of the year and colleges will be able to reflect this in their planning and marketing materials in the new year.”

Responding to this latest letter, a DfE spokesperson said: “The government took immediate action to pause the defunding that was due to occur from 1 August 2024 and announced a focused review.

“The review will allow us to support BTEC students, roll out T Levels and bring certainty to the sector.

“We are pausing defunding for the duration of the review and we will conclude and communicate the outcome of that before the turn of the year.”