T Level starts grew 59% to 25,500 in 2024-25

Over 25,000 young people started a T Level in the fifth year of the government’s flagship qualification rollout.

This marks a 59 per cent increase on the previous year – a rate of growth that a qualifications expert has said is not high enough for the courses to “become the dominant technical offer”.

Early years, health and business and admin remain popular T Levels with the majority of starts in 2024-25, according to transparency data published by the Department for Education this morning.

The number of learners starting T Levels grew from 16,085 in 2023-24 to 25,508 in 2024-25. Over this period more than 100 more providers came on board to deliver the qualifications, rising from 254 to 367.

The rate of growth in student numbers was similar to the year prior (58 per cent). 

A DfE update today said the numbers shows “real progress in extending the opportunities T Levels provide to more young people”.

Today’s data shows courses such as digital business services and healthcare science continue to struggle to attract learners. They attracted just 71 and 136 students respectively, despite launching three years ago.

It comes as the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education today confirmed that the healthcare science T Level will be scrapped from 2026-27 and will consolidate the content within the wider health and science route. The DfE has also scrapped plans to launch T Levels in beauty and catering.

Rob Nitsch, chief executive of the Federation of Awarding Bodies, said: “We’re seeing an improvement, which is encouraging but it’s not the exponential increase needed for T Levels to become the dominant technical offer.”

Earlier this week, the independent curriculum and assessment review, led by Becky Francis, highlighted that, using 2023 data, just 2 per cent of 16 and 17 year olds took T Levels.

Catherine Sezen, director of education policy at the Association of Colleges, said: “While there has been a steady increase in enrolments over the past five years, the numbers have not fully met the government’s initial expectations.”

This is the first year that DfE has provided a breakdown of T Level starts by the 21 individual pathways rather than route.

Of the T Levels debuting this academic year, the animal care and management pathway was the most popular with 1,281 starts. Craft and design, a new part of the creative and design route, only garnered 136 starts.

Meanwhile, the new media, broadcast and production T Level has 600 starts.

Nearly 5,000 learners onboarded onto the education and early years T Level in September, the largest cohort this academic year followed by 3,772 learners on the health T Level and 2,054 digital production, design and development.

Students opting for the health and science route has grown since it was offered in 2021-22, when 1,600 learners started on the health and science route, increasing to 2,819 last year. Overall, there were 4,273 entries on the route this year.

DfE will also be making changes to the content and assessment of the digital, construction and education & early years T Level routes, including streamlining the core content and getting rid some the amount of assessments in specific T Levels. 

Sezen said there are two key barriers to T Level uptake: “Accessibility, due to overlapping content and extensive assessments, and placement capacity. The introduction of Generation 2 T Levels in 2025 aims to address the first challenge by streamlining content and reducing the volume of assessments.

“Placements provide invaluable experience for students. While recent changes have been helpful, we have been consistently asking for a clear plan to get more employers involved in all types of programmes to ensure there are enough placements available.”

Today’s data also shows take up of the T Level foundation year rose by a third from 6,900 to 9,228 learners this year studying at 162 providers.

This is the first year of the name rebrand for the qualification; it was previously called the T Level transition programme.

The most popular was the health and science foundation course, with 2,133 starts. The lowest take up was the legal, finance and accounting, which attracted just 25 students.

DfE declined to comment.

DfE scraps three more T Levels

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.

FE is top sector for sending deprived students on Turing trips

Further education providers have sent a higher proportion of disadvantaged students on international placements than any other type of educational institution since the Turing scheme began, FE Week analysis shows.

Sixty per cent of all FE placements have been given to students from deprived backgrounds, compared with 52 per cent in schools and 50 per cent in universities.

Named after the mathematician and code-breaker Alan Turing, the DfE-funded initiative replaced Erasmus+ in March 2021 with a new focus on social mobility. Then education secretary Gavin Williamson also expanded it beyond the EU.

The government aimed to send 35,000 students to work or study around the world at a cost of more than £100 million a year.

The scheme got off to a slow start with 21,353 participants in 2021-22, of which 39 per cent were from a disadvantaged background. But the figures increased to 38,374 and 52 per cent respectively the following year, then to 40,206 and 60 per cent in 2023-24.

In 2024-25 the number of UK-wide participants increased to 43,152 but the proportion of those from disadvantaged backgrounds fell to 53 per cent.

The proportion of FE participants from disadvantaged backgrounds started at 45 per cent in year one, increasing to 57 per cent in year two, then 71 per cent in year three, but dropped to 59 per cent in year four.

Overall since 2021, further education providers have placed 22,483 disadvantaged learners, representing 60 per cent of all 37,342 participants.

FE creating numerous ‘firsts’ for disadvantaged learners

Nottingham College has been involved in Turing for all four years. James Swift, its director of strategic development and projects, said its participants were from households where the average income was among the lowest in the UK.

“Many have never ventured beyond Nottingham, let alone abroad,” he said, adding that the scheme funded passport fees and travel essentials.

“Students who previously couldn’t envision themselves succeeding outside their immediate environment, return with enhanced self-belief, often becoming the first in their families to meaningfully engage with global opportunities.”

Although most Turing scheme participants came from HE, it had the lowest overall proportion of students from deprived backgrounds – 50 per cent out of a total 84,129, 52 per cent of the 21,614-strong cohort from schools came from underprivileged backgrounds.

Middlesbrough College recently sent 26 level 3 students to Bali for two weeks, with leaders saying about three-quarters of its participants over the past two years have been from disadvantaged backgrounds. 

Aimey Adamson, vice-principal, students and communication at Middlesbrough College Group, said: “Our current project has already reported positive outcomes for many students, as they experience numerous firsts, such as travelling by plane, train, living independently, cooking for themselves, commuting, and exploring new places.”

A Capital City College spokesperson said: “The Turing scheme has created an invaluable opportunity for our learners from disadvantaged backgrounds. Over the last three years we’ve witnessed the impact the experience has on the personal and professional development of participants.”

Funding Turing placements ‘may become challenging’

Boost Turing scheme funding for most disadvantaged, evaluators tell DfE

FE leaders said that while the scheme had an aim to address social mobility, the programme needed to be “appropriately funded” to meet this goal.

Swift said: “The scheme still has social mobility and addressing disadvantage as one of its primary areas of focus. However, the overall programme is moving more towards a match-funded model, where contributions are required to meet the cost of mobilities.”

Nottingham had created a bursary to meet this contribution requirement so disadvantaged students did not miss out.

“As FE finances come under increased pressure year on year, this may become challenging across the sector,” he said.

Nina Chorzelewski, policy manager at the Association of Colleges, said: “The scheme’s aim to support disadvantaged student participation is absolutely fundamental and the mobility opportunities that Turing affords would not be possible without this funding. 

“However, there is a need for a sustained, appropriately funded commitment … to ensure as many students as possible benefit from mobility projects.”

A DfE spokesperson said: “The Turing Scheme prioritises placements for students from a disadvantaged background and we have made delivering these placements a condition of providers’ grant funding agreements.

“The scheme provides flexibility for providers through the year to make changes to their plans. As part of this, we expect them to look for opportunities to boost places for students from a disadvantaged background.”

UCU staff to walk out for 6 weeks over ‘intolerable’ dispute

University and College Union (UCU) staff have upped the ante in their dispute with their trade union employer by launching weeks of continual strike action.

About 150 members of Unite who work at the UCU will walk out next week as part of a “threat of sustained action” set to last for 20 days over six weeks. The row stems from accusations of workplace racism and alleged breaches of collective agreements.

It comes after a mediation meeting on Wednesday ended in chaos with UCU bosses accusing its staff of “executing a vendetta” against them.

The six-week action will also impact national events, including UCU Scotland Congress scheduled for May 24 to 26. It has now been postponed.

In a blog post this week, a Unite spokesperson said: “We are deeply conscious that the recent escalation of the workplace crisis has made an intolerable situation for so many of us even worse. It has made the long and patient process to rebuild UCU harder.”

The action is based on a re-ballot from December in which 75 per cent of Unite members voted to strike, based on a 69 per cent turnout.

Unite represents about 69 per cent of the 216 UCU trade union employees.

Staff last walked out for three days in December.

Strike impacting perception of union

The spat escalated between negotiators at an Acas meeting this week, after which UCU senior management accused Unite of “choosing to paralyse” the union with 20 days of strikes while its HE and FE members are “facing attacks” from their employers.

“We have come to the conclusion that sections of the Unite committee are executing a vendetta, which regardless of how much we have tried, we fundamentally cannot resolve (as evidenced by the never-ending switching up of negotiating positions),” UCU said.

“Public and sustained unevidenced claims made by Unite are having a negative impact on our union, including on our members’ perception of their union.”

Senior management also blamed Unite for not resolving industrial relations since Acas discussions began last June by publishing “increasingly defamatory and unevidenced public statements”.

Meanwhile, Unite negotiators said they attended the meeting with a number of asks, such as revisiting the union’s restructuring plans. If agreed it would have recommended members call off the strikes.

A Unite spokesperson told FE Week: “We were able to discuss some but not all of those in talks yesterday. These asks are an attempt to secure a route to finally resolve our dispute. Negotiators remain ready and willing to reconvene those talks as soon as possible to see if further progress can be made.”

Black members not at threat of dismissal

Unite officially entered a dispute with UCU last March following complaints of “institutional failings” over UCU’s alleged disproportionate treatment of black staff.

UCU accepted an external review into racism. Three independent panellists were due to meet in September, but will now start once the staff dispute is settled.

Unite wanted to drop the threat of dismissal-related procedures that it said were being used against two black staff under internal investigation.

In a lengthy statement published online this week, UCU confirmed that black staff involved in disciplinary investigations were not at threat of dismissal, but said Unite’s demand was “impossible and unlawful”.

A Unite spokesperson said: “We welcome the move by the employer made in an email to all staff following talks yesterday afternoon that the black staff concerned are no longer at threat of dismissal. This feels like a positive step forward.

“We trust this will be communicated separately to both of them immediately.”

UCU conducted a “listening circle” back in 2022, during which black staff shared their experiences of racism in the workplace.

But a group of black Unite members this week accused UCU of making “no effort” to address the circle’s findings.

A spokesperson said: “We are concerned that the long-awaited race review panel has still not occurred, especially after waiting so long after the listening circle’s report. This is demoralising for black staff.

“We note the alarming fact that every staff member who spoke up about racism at Unite UCU’s strike rally at Congress has now been targeted and subject to victimisation by UCU’s SMT, leading to some staff leaving.

“Over the past two years, we have witnessed black staff departing UCU for the sake of their own mental health and wellbeing, and facing disciplinary action and dismissal from UCU. This ‘purge’ of black staff does not inspire the remaining black staff with the hope that UCU, as our employer, will or indeed wants to do the right thing.”

Mayors dump adult education cuts on independent training providers

Mayors have been accused of “copping out” by lumping the weight of incoming cuts to their adult education budgets on to independent training providers. 

The Department for Education recently told England’s 13 authorities with devolved skills funding powers to expect reduced allocations of about 3 per cent for the 2025-26 academic year. 

FE Week has found multiple cases where mayors have decided to slash procured contracting pots – by up two thirds in one area – to offset the cut while protecting grant funding for colleges and local authorities. 

It comes as the DfE announces plans to introduce a blanket 6 per cent cut for all training providers and colleges it funds through national adult skills funding (ASF) contracts, amid a series of “difficult financial decisions”. 

Sue Pember, the policy director at adult education body HOLEX, said it was understandable for mayors to cut back on contracts with procured training providers because local governments were focused on building “civic infrastructure”. 

But Simon Ashworth, the deputy chief executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP), said they were “soft decisions”. 

“While cuts to ASF at a national level are difficult to swallow, at least the same methodology is being applied consistently across different provider types – whereas we’re starting to see multiple devolved regions where this is not the case. 

“This inconsistency is leading to a cop-out where soft decisions are being made that disproportionately impact ITPs, instead of looking at who delivers best outcomes for learners and value for money from a reducing adult funding pot.” 

30 per cent cut in South Yorkshire 

South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority (SYMCA), which procured £10 million out of its £42 million annual budget this year, plans to contract out only £7 million to ITPs next year – a 30 per cent cut. 

This is despite the authority holding on to millions in underspends from previous years – a cash pot that is ring-fenced for adult education. 

Board papers suggest SYMCA’s reductions in procured allocations have been made based on “historic underperformance relative to grant-funded delivery”. 

The papers said: “It is proposed that the procured provision accommodates the national reduction in ASF funding, based on performance relative to outputs and outcomes. Historically, procured provision has underperformed relative to expectations and budgets.” 

Two new combined authorities, East Midlands and York and North Yorkshire, are also reducing their planned procured portion of skills budgets that they will take control of for the first time in 2025-26. 

East Midlands has lowered the total value of its procured adult education by 24 per cent to £7.6 million, after initially advertising a £10 million budget. 

FE Week understands York and North Yorkshire reduced its procured pot available to ITPs from more than £2 million to £1.3 million. 

Both refused to explain why they were lumping the DfE’s cuts on to ITPs instead of across the board. 

Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority (CPCA) plans to cut its procured budget by two thirds – from £2 million to £702,000 next year. 

A CPCA spokesperson confirmed the “significant” reduction, but denied prioritising grant-funded providers. 

They argued that CPCA’s current procured contracts, which are coming to an end in July, were “enhanced through our reserve funding which has now been spent”. It is for this reason, combined with the DfE’s 3 per cent cut, that the procured pot has shrunk. 

In contrast, the North East Combined Authority, which has a budget of about £67.4 million next year, plans to pass the DfE cuts evenly on to local authorities, colleges and independent training providers – applying a 2.8 per cent contract reduction across the board, according to a report before its cabinet this week. 

A senior manager at one provider with procured adult education contracts in multiple devolved areas said: “It’s frustrating to see reduced allocations, especially when our training supports unemployed learners into work through strong employer links. 

“Ultimately, it’s learners who lose out.” 

Luke Muscat, the managing director of Back2Work Group, said that while some MCAs were applying the cuts “consistently”, others were “putting the weight” on ITPs. 

“Typically a lot more of what we do is work with unemployed people and employers – supporting them to hire that talent. 

“The obvious impact is that it reduces the number of employers and unemployed residents that we’re able to support on an annual basis. We’ll have to reject requests for support.” 

‘This isn’t pitting one set of providers against another’ 

Other large authorities with devolved skills budgets, such as the Greater London Authority and West Yorkshire Combined Authority, are yet to confirm details of their approaches for next year. 

According to a recent report to its mayor Steve Rotheram, Liverpool City Region Combined Authority will make a £1.8 million cut to its £52.2 million annual ASF budget. 

But it has chosen to maintain or even increase its grant-funded allocations “taking into account current year delivery” while funding for procured providers will be confirmed this spring based on “current year performance”. 

Pember said the plan for adult education devolution has always been to have less procured provision and “more stable funding”. 

She told FE Week: “This isn’t pitting one set of providers against another, it’s about putting money back into the locality, it’s about jobs and knowing where to go. 

“The typical work ITPs have is one-off projects in local areas. Yes, there’s a role for partnership activity, but for niche areas. People flitting in, taking the low-hanging fruit and flitting out again – I think the world’s moved on.” 

Speaking anonymously to FE Week, multiple ITP bosses also accepted that cutting grant funding to colleges would be a more difficult political choice for mayors, given their interest in protecting the financial stability of local institutions. 

Commenting on the DfE’s adult education decisions last week, Jacqui Smith, the skills minister, said “small cuts” in funding were “enormously difficult”. 

“I totally understand the argument that people make that that is also an important contributor to giving people the skills they need to stay and, in some cases, to get back into the workplace.

“That’s why we need to make the case that we are making to the chancellor as part of the spending review.” 

AGQs could be ‘timed out’ before curriculum review ends 

The government is quietly pushing through plans to wipe out medium-sized alternative courses to T Levels during the independent curriculum and assessment review (CAR).  

In late 2024 the Department for Education agreed to pause the defunding of applied general qualifications (AGQs), such as BTECs, for at least another year.  

Ministers also reached an agreement with campaigners to remove constraints on combining different types and sizes of qualification through its level 3 reforms.  

The CAR panel, led by Professor Becky Francis, was formed last summer to review England’s curriculum and assessment system, including 16 to 19 education, and recommend improvements.  

The panel published an interim report this week that said it was “clear that they [T Levels] are not suitable as the only vocational pathway”. The panel will “consider carefully” which other options should sit alongside the new technical qualifications through the remainder of the review, which is due to be published in the autumn.  

But in December, months after the CAR review was launched, the DfE released guidance stating that funding would be removed from “large” AGQs in T Level routes, with ministers controversially lumping in qualifications that usually would be considered medium.  

The guidance says: “Where learners wish to study a large qualification (of 720 guided learning hours or more), in a T Level route, the T Level should be the main option for them.”  

The Protect Student Choice Campaign wrote to Francis this week to explain this would remove funding from all diploma-size (two A-level equivalent, 720 guided learning hours) qualifications in T Level routes.  

The letter said: “As you know, many students successfully combine a diploma-size AGQ with an A-level to reach higher education or skilled employment. These qualifications are a very different size to T Levels (that average 1,200 guided learning hours, plus an industry placement of at least 315 hours) and serve a very different purpose.  

“Although this guidance was published while your review was underway, the government is reluctant to revisit it before your review has reported. This will have the effect of ‘timing out’ diploma-size qualifications in Cycle 1 subjects (eg applied science, health and social care, IT, and engineering) as awarding bodies are required to submit new versions of these courses for approval before your review concludes.”  

There are 63,840 16- to 19-year-olds studying an AGQ of 720 guided learning hours or more in a T Level route. Removing these qualifications could “lead to many students disengaging from education and increase the number of young people not in education, employment or training (NEET)”, the letter said.  

James Kewin, the deputy chief executive of the Sixth Form Colleges Association, said: “The Protect Student Choice coalition was pleased to see a commitment in the CAR’s interim report to explore what qualifications should sit alongside A-levels and T Levels at level 3.   

“But as things stand, some applied qualifications will be ‘timed out’ before the CAR’s final report is published.”  

The campaign called on Francis to ensure her review “signals that it sees a role for diploma-sized qualifications in the future and the government should revisit its guidance to allow qualifications of this size to be submitted for approval in T Level routes”.  

The DfE was approached for comment. 

  

DfE launches GCSE resit teacher training tender

The government is inviting bids for contracts worth up to £1 million from organisations to deliver training that increases “student and teacher confidence and ability” in GCSE maths and English resits.  

The Department for Education put out feelers last October to gauge market interest in extra teacher training for FE resit staff.  

Results for GCSE English and maths resits have struggled to improve, with less than a third of students passing the exams in post-16 education.

Last week, the DfE launched a tender, which runs until mid-April, for bids to deliver continuing professional development to “support the provision of English, maths and wider organisational working” for FE staff.  

The DfE did not clarify the overall total of the grant pot, but it encouraged multiple organisations to bid for contracts between £200,000 and £1 million.  

Bidders will have to propose how much they want for a two-year financial period starting June 1, 2025, and ending March 31, 2027.  

However, funding for the second year will be subject to contractors supplying evidence that they are fulfilling the objectives and “ensuring value for money”.  

Students must resit GCSE English and maths in post-16 education as a condition of their places being funded if they fail to achieve a grade 4 pass at school.  

The DfE has funded multiple resit CPD programmes in the past, including through the Education and Training Foundation, White Rose Education, Lexonik and Mathematics Education Innovation  

Tender documents show that for this round, the department twill accept applications from organisations able to cover multiple regions in England or nationwide. 

But bidders have been encouraged to “prioritise regions with lower attainment rates for level 2 English and maths and/or high vacancy rates for English and maths teachers”. 

The CPD will be online or in-person and could involve subject-specific training in topics such as improving algebra knowledge and developing reading comprehension.  

The DfE will measure the success of the initiative across four areas, including requiring contractors to demonstrate 80 per cent increases in student and teacher confidence and ability in maths and English. 

Committee summons leaders for ‘new ways of doing FE’ hearing

A principal, a union leader and members of education think tanks will next week answer questions on ‘new ways of doing FE’.

MPs on the education select committee will quiz experts for the first time on Tuesday for its wide-ranging inquiry on further education and skills. 

The inquiry, which launched in January, covers 21 areas of interest, including teachers, funding, qualifications, attainment gaps and student mental health. 

Appearing first next week will be Darren Hankey, the principal and chief executive of Hartlepool College, Rob Nitsch, the chief executive of the Federation of Awarding Bodies, Alice Gardner of the Edge Foundation and David Robinson, director of post-16 and skills at the Education Policy Institute. 

They will be followed by Bill Watkin, the chief executive at the Sixth Form Colleges Association, Jo Grady, the general secretary of the University and College Union, David Hughes, the chief executive of the Association of Colleges and Imran Tahir, a research economist at the Institute for Fiscal Studies. 

Committee members are likely to ask about T Levels, teacher pay and retention, SEND reforms and attainment gaps. 

Launching the inquiry, committee chair Helen Hayes said the government was “a long way off” delivering parity of esteem between technical and academic education. 

“In this inquiry, we will listen to both the education sector and figures from industry and public services to investigate how the DfE could design a new way of doing FE that helps young people into the careers they desire, serves vital sectors that struggle to recruit, and catalyses growth across the country.”

Use reform to tailor functional skills to industry needs

Since the government announced its functional skills flexibilities for adults we’ve seen a varied response across the sector. Disappointingly, some providers – both small and large – have seized the opportunity to stop delivering functional skills altogether, making functional skills tutors redundant even in cases where employers and apprentices still require those skills.

At HIT Training Ltd, we are seeing the opposite trend. None of our employer partners have asked us to stop delivering functional skills.

Instead, most are looking to us as sector specialists to make the judgement – ensuring apprentices have the chance to gain the skills they need now and for future career progression.

Several large employers have explicitly asked us to continue delivering functional skills as before. Their rationale is clear: functional skills are still essential for workplace performance, end-point assessment activities and long-term employability.

While we support increased flexibility, we believe the responsibility now lies with providers and employers to ensure apprentices still develop these vital skills wherever needed.

Essential skills

Functional skills qualifications are now an optional requirement for employers of adult apprentices, but their importance has not changed. Strong literacy and numeracy skills remain essential for both employers and apprentices, influencing workplace performance, career progression and long-term employability.

Effective communication, data handling and problem-solving are fundamental to job roles across all sectors, while many apprentices will struggle to move into supervisory or management positions without a solid foundation in English and maths.

Regardless of regulatory changes, most employers still expect their workforce to have a functional level of literacy and numeracy.

Then there is the social impact of the qualification. There are adults who for many reasons have not reached an appropriate level of maths and English, whether because of undiagnosed learning difficulties, life events or failings of the education system.

Having the skills and strategies to communicate effectively with family members and friends, better understand bills or having the confidence to search for better deals can be life-changing.

At HIT, we go beyond generic requirements by using our deep sector expertise to determine the minimum literacy and numeracy levels needed to complete each of the apprenticeships we offer. We work closely with employers to understand not only the skills needed to perform in a role, but also what will be required for future career progression within a business.

By embedding this understanding into our approach we ensure every apprentice has the best opportunity to develop the skills they need – not just to complete their apprenticeship, but to build a sustainable and successful career.

What needs to change?

The removal of functional skills as a mandatory requirement shouldn’t lead to a decline in skills development. If anything, it should encourage a more tailored and meaningful approach to supporting literacy and numeracy.

To ensure apprentices continue to develop these essential skills, the sector must remain committed to maintaining access to functional skills rather than using flexibilities as a reason to cut provision.

Employers and sector bodies now have greater responsibility in determining skills requirements, and providers must engage them early to ensure literacy and numeracy are not overlooked – for the apprentice, workforce requirements and their future career progression.

Additionally, Ofsted and the Department for Education should play a more active role in supporting providers to improve functional skills delivery.

Rather than focusing solely on pass rates, these bodies should assess how effectively providers help apprentices develop these skills in a way that is relevant and contextualised to their job role, ensuring training remains meaningful and impactful in the workplace.

Guidance, resources and best practice sharing will help providers strengthen functional skills delivery without unnecessary administrative burdens.

At HIT Training we will continue to work closely with employers, apprentices and policymakers to ensure functional skills remain a core part of quality apprenticeship delivery. Not because they’re required, but because they matter.