Latest news from FE Week

Revealed: Funding rates and delivery hours for apprenticeship units

Funding rates for the inaugural batch of apprenticeship units will range from £750 up to £3,200, Skills England has revealed.

The government agency has today published the funding rate for each individual apprenticeship unit as well as minimum delivery hours.

An updated list has also split the single proposed AI leadership apprenticeship unit into three separate units, increasing the total number on offer from eight to ten.

All apprenticeship units have an earliest start date of April 28. A list of eligible training providers able to deliver the new short courses has not yet been released. The government previously said a limited group of “strong” apprenticeship providers will qualify to offer the first units.

The permanent modular building assembly apprenticeship unit attracts the most funding of £3,200, with minimum delivery hours set at 140 hours. This is followed by the welding unit with a funding rate of £2,100 for 90 hours.

Three units – mechanical fitting and assembly, electrical fitting and assembly, and battery manufacturing – have a £1,650 funding rate with 70 minimum delivery hours, while two units – electric vehicle (EV) charging point installation and maintenance, and solar PV installation and maintenance – have been assigned a £950 rate for 35 hours.

The three AI leadership units – in delivery and organisational transformation, adoption, procurement and governance, and strategy and opportunity – attract the lowest funding rate of £750 with delivery hours set at just 30 hours.

Apprenticeship units are new short courses to be funded through the reformed growth and skills levy for both large and small employers.

This is the first time levy funds can be used for non-apprenticeship training – a move promised by Labour in the party’s 2024 general election manifesto.

Apprenticeship units will only be for employed learners aged 19 and over whose employer has “identified a need to upskill them quickly to meet business needs and remain competitive”.

Units will not be eligible for learners “seeking to start a new career or occupation”.

Content for apprenticeship units comes from the knowledge and skills from existing apprenticeship occupational standards “needed to address specific critical skills gaps”, the government has said.

Training providers have, however, warned the apprenticeship units funding model is “not a winning formula” and could choke off delivery before it begins.

Funding will be heavily end-loaded and paid on two milestones to providers. The first 30 per cent of the funding rate will be paid once the learner has completed 30 per cent of the planned delivery hours. The second milestone payment will come once the learner has completed all hours and passed a skills test.

It means a provider that delivers 90 per cent of planned hours when a learner drops out risks receiving just 30 per cent of the funding.

On top of this, the government said it would keep the “affordability” of apprenticeship units “under review” and could withdraw a unit with just four weeks’ notice.

Providers fear the model leaves them exposed and could dampen their appetite for involvement.

Novus selected again to deliver West Midlands prison education

Eight prisons in the West Midlands have finally been appointed an education supplier after an initial failed procurement process.

Existing contract-holder Novus will continue to provide core education services in the region from September 1 following the conclusion of a second tendering exercise.

The Ministry of Justice re-ran the Prison Education Service (PES) contract procurement for the West Midlands lot last summer after bidders came “exceptionally close” in scoring.

Novus was granted a six-month extension on the previous contract whilst the new contract was retendered.

It now means Novus runs education services for 50 prisons across England, accounting for over one third of the public prison estate.

Novus, which is part of Manchester-based college group LTE Group, secured four contracts worth up to £255 million in August 2025 when the winners of the PES tender were announced.

The value of the West Midlands lot has not been disclosed.

Peter Cox, managing director of Novus, said: “Novus has a long track record of effective collaboration with prison regimes and employers across the West Midlands, and we are delighted to continue delivering education in this region.

“For more than three decades Novus has been providing high-quality education and training in the prison estate, working with learners who are the furthest from the labour market. We are proud of our track record in supporting individuals into employment after release, as well as the innovative practice led by our committed teams of education professionals.

“We look forward to working closely with His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) to help more people in the West Midlands turn their lives around under PES.”

New-vus?

Novus is one of three suppliers for the new prison education service, which began in October.

The winners of PES were supposed to be announced in early 2025, with contracts starting in April, but the MoJ delayed to “allow more time for contract award and mobilisation”.

The contracts, which began in October and are worth up to £1.5 billion in total, were handed to three existing providers: Milton Keynes College, People Plus and Novus.

It meant education in just 26 out of England’s 102 prisons changed hands.

Jails are currently experiencing cuts to planned education hours, with prisons in Greater Manchester and Merseyside being hit the hardest since the new contract took effect six months ago.

Novus manages education in seven prisons in the Greater Manchester, Merseyside and Cheshire region, which are now subject to a 40 per cent reduction in education hours.

Its other contracts, in Yorkshire and Cumbria, are facing cuts of between 24 and 26 per cent.

But Novus’s eight prisons in the North East have weathered the cuts, seeing just a 2 per cent reduction in education hours.

According to the MoJ, the regional differences are due to a “revised” funding formula to prison budgets which is based on prison population and regional cost differences.

Education questions April 2026: Live blog

Welcome to FE Week‘s live blog of education questions on April 20, 2026. The session will begin at around 2.30pm.

This is a new function we are testing following our decision to stop posting on the social media website X.

Instead of live reporting key events via our social channels, we will host these blogs on our website, making it easier for our readers to see all updates in one place.

If you have feedback, please email news@feweek.co.uk

‘Heartbreaking’: How colleges are forced to turn away students as demand outstrips space

A surge in the teenage population and big demand for technical education courses might sound like great news for colleges. But government funding decisions have burdened such opportunity with financial risk, due to a lack of money and physical teaching space.

This academic year, colleges enrolled 32,000 extra young people with no additional funding. And the outlook for next year is just as concerning – a snap survey of 114 colleges by the Association of Colleges last month revealed they were expecting 22,106 more 16 to 18-year-old students than the 440,524 they will receive funding for.

Just over half (12,642) of these applicants are at risk of being denied a place because of the lack of funding – which risks fuelling the NEET (not in education, employment or training) crisis.

Repurposing space

To meet need, colleges are knocking through walls, installing portable buildings, and turning factories, warehouses and shops into classrooms and workshops, sometimes miles from main campuses.

Shrewsbury College has grown its 16-to-18 student numbers by around 1,200 in the last six years to 4,400. Applications for next year are 600 higher than this time last year, with some courses already closed and temporary classrooms being installed for September.

The college is turning students away from courses in electrical, plumbing and engineering because “we just haven’t got the workshop space”, which is “heartbreaking”, said principal James Staniforth.

Expanding provision by “adding a bit here, a bit there” has left Shrewsbury “managing several different small-scale building projects that you’re paying for out of your operating surpluses”, he explains.

“We’ve remodelled corridors and floors and taken walls out to expand teaching space, but this means losing space we would have used for other things.”

Last year, a new learning centre replaced the college’s only hall, so “we lost the only space to get 200 people together at one time”.

“It’s the social space which you don’t get any funding for that’s being lost, and that’s challenging.”

Shrewsbury College principal James Staniforth

Crammed construction

The trades are the biggest pinch point.

Nearly 9,500 young people will be unable to start on their desired construction course next academic year due to college capacity constraints, AoC’s poll found.

In Bradford, which has the largest cohort of 18 to 24-year-olds claiming universal credit in the UK (11 per cent), Bradford College received four applications for every place on its 16-to-18 construction programmes last year, with applications for this year up another 20 per cent.

The college is paying from its own pocket to boost its capacity for bricklaying, plumbing, electrical and carpentry and joinery.

Dudley College of Technology, which was given construction technical excellence college status last year, had to close applications for several programmes in March after receiving more than double it had capacity for. Now, over 400 young people are on waiting lists for carpentry, electrical, plastering and plumbing courses.

The bottleneck is feeding the area’s NEET numbers. Last year, Dudley had the lowest percentage (82.2 per cent) of 16 to 17-year-olds in education or training of any area in England.

CEO Diana Martin said Dudley had “decamped” its electrical provision into a repurposed storage area, and transformed office space into workshops and classrooms.

Six miles down the road, Halesowen College had historically signposted those interested in construction-related courses to Dudley. But Halesowen’s CEO Jacquie Carman felt that with the “massive problem in our area with NEETs we didn’t want to keep letting these kids down”, so launched the college’s first construction curriculum.

Following a “very modest pitch” for construction courses at the college’s open days in October and November, the college will start teaching around 150 construction students in September.

Collaboration was key. Dudley’s CTEC lead sat on the interview panel for Halesowen’s head of construction appointment, and paid the first three months of Halesowen’s construction department salaries from its CTEC funding.

Dudley College Campus photography 2024 .Picture by Shaun Fellows / Shine Pix Ltd

Lower-level squeeze

With more young people falling out of the school system early, local authorities are struggling to forecast how many FE places are needed.

“It’s very difficult to quantify numbers based on local authority population estimates,” said Craig Hodgson, CEO of Newcastle and Stafford Colleges Group (NSCG). “We can see the young people coming through schools, but quite a large number are being home-schooled.”

NSCG has grown by 1,240 students in the last three years. But the number of NEET/not known 16 to 17-year-olds in Staffordshire has rocketed in that time from 3.3 per cent to 6 per cent.

Nationally, the number of 16 to 18-year-olds surged by 230,000, or 13 per cent, between 2017 and 2024, and will rise by another 110,000 (5 per cent) to a peak in 2028.

But James Farr, director of the Think consultancy, warns that Office for National Statistics (ONS) population projections are dated, and says some colleges face “unprecedented demand for places in areas ONS claims are seeing comparatively modest growth in population”.

Between 2023-24 and 2025-26, student numbers in colleges rose by around 7 per cent a year, compared with around 1 per cent growth in school sixth forms and 2 per cent growth for sixth-form colleges.

This has been fuelled by a 34 per cent rise in 16 to 17-year-olds enrolling on level 2 courses between 2022 and 2024, with level 1 numbers also rising 5.1 per cent. By comparison, level 3 numbers grew only 3.6 per cent.

Despite this, much of the government’s policy attention has been on level 3 provision, particularly T Levels.

Chris Webb, CEO of Bradford College, believes the level 3 policy focus has led to “under-investment in the lower levels”.

Capacity funding black hole

Colleges receive post-16 capacity funding to help them cope with excess demand, but most of last year’s cash went to Leeds and Greater Manchester as the regions deemed by the DfE to have the highest need.

Webb feels Bradford, which also has acute capacity issues, has been treated like it is “second class”.

But even though Luminate Education Group received £8 million of Leeds’s £10 million pot, its CEO Bill Jones said the money was “not enough to do what we need to create the capacity Leeds needs”.

Luminate spent its money on a 127-year lease for a former office building to create up to 1,500 extra places in a new health science academy.

Meanwhile, devolution means half of post-16 capacity funding is now “disappearing into a black hole”, according to James Kewin, deputy CEO of the Sixth Form Colleges Association.

In total, 18 mayoral combined authorities and councils will receive £184 million in post-16 capacity funding and £99 million for construction skills capacity funding out of a £570 million pot for the years 2026-27 to 2029-30.

“At a very basic level, some colleges are struggling to find out who to talk to in strategic authorities,” Kewin said.

Bill Jones, Luminate CEO

Nowhere else to go

Another pressure for colleges is that more young people are choosing technical subjects which require more space per learner. Farr conducted a review of DfE data which showed enrolments by under-19s in construction and creative arts are growing faster than the average.

NSCG has around 700 learners on T Level programmes, which Hodgson explains require “more space-hungry” specialist facilities and more hours of teaching, which adds “extra demands on space and teachers”.

Farr believes some areas also have less provision available to re-engage NEETs midway through the academic year, as fewer specialist providers are now working with hard-to-reach young people than was the case before the Covid pandemic.

The Local Government Association said many councils believe more independent training organisations are needed to provide a broader range of settings, but “DfE is reluctant to expand the provider base”.

The lack of alternative provision in Leeds was highlighted in the minutes of a recent Luminate board meeting, which stated that whereas in the past some students would have been signposted elsewhere “to ensure they succeed”, now there was “no longer anywhere to refer them to”.

Growth funding challenges

Sudden increases in student numbers are financially risky for colleges due to the DfE’s “lagged” funding model, which allocates cash based on the previous year’s enrolments. When numbers surge, colleges must absorb the cost unless there is in-year growth funding from the government.

The DfE announced this week it will only fund “approximately three-quarters” of this year’s growth. But David Hughes, CEO of the Association of Colleges, calculates that factoring in non-teaching costs, this growth funding will barely cover half what colleges have spent.

Hughes wants a “proper demand-led funding, like universities have for their students”.

“Without that investment, the pressures caused by extra students will only get worse, resulting in colleges turning students away, and NEET numbers rising,” he warned.

East Sussex College Group’s board last year reported cashflow issues, after taking on 175 additional students in 2024-25 and suffering an in-year growth funding reduction. It stated “future growth in student recruitment would need to be carefully managed” to mitigate against the risk of this happening again.

The group added: “This created certain ethical considerations for the college as its ability to continue subsidising rising demand was being diminished… the board reluctantly acknowledged the need to support a college-wide approach to consistently use waiting lists for high demand subject areas, rather than subsidising and overextending its provision delivery.”

While student numbers have increased, the number of staff working in FE between 2023-24 and 2024-25 dropped from 204,800 to 203,000, with the number of teachers declining from 81,900 to 80,500.

This puts extra strain on existing staff, especially given the recent government announcement that the 16-to-19 funding rate will only rise by 0.5 per cent in 2026-27.

Bradford College principal and CEO Chris Webb

Waiting for places

Waiting lists are generally viewed as being a blunt tool to tackle the capacity problem. Webb believes they “don’t work”, because those young people should be on an alternative course in the meantime.

“When they disengage from learning, you can lose them for life,” he said.

Hodgson “tries not” to keep waiting lists at NSCG as he believes they give learners “false hope”.

Instead, he refers young people to other colleges in the area, but the “challenge” now is “all those colleges are experiencing population growth”.

Derby College tried a different approach last year by introducing a university-style clearing process to help it retain students who could not get onto their first choice of course.

Clearing events were held for individuals who had not yet engaged with the college, and although the college was unable to guarantee places through clearing, other providers attended to offer alternative opportunities.

SEND rise

A large rise in young people with special education needs has also added to the capacity problem, as these students tend to require smaller class sizes and increased teaching support, and those with SEMH needs typically struggle in crowded environments.

A rise in learners with EHCPs was a “significant issue” for Hopwood Hall College, creating “additional pressures in relation to increased staffing costs”, its governing board said.

The increase in learners was classed as “severe” in its risk register, with demand having “exceeded expectations” in areas including construction, electrical engineering, and health and social care in 2024-25. The college is in Rochdale, where the percentage of 16 to 18-year-olds in education or training fell from 94 to 89 per cent between 2021 and 2025.

Picture by Shaun Fellows / Shine Pix Dudley College photography

Building alternatives

Capital projects do not provide immediate solutions as they can take many years to materialise.

“Even if I were to get the money that I needed today for construction skills shortages, it probably wouldn’t address the issue for another two years,” said Webb.

“We’re in a challenging environment now – there needs to be better planning for the future to avoid getting to these pinch points.”

Mark Dawe, chief executive of The Skills Network, believes the solution to the short-term demographic bulge lies in more online delivery.

His provider has proposed a hybrid model of 30 per cent online and 70 per cent in-person delivery to college partners and is in the “early days of setting up a pilot in a couple of areas”.

The government aims to tackle the problem of young people being left without placements by improving the transition to post-16 education, including through “automatic” enrolments at colleges and a national tool for identifying children at risk of becoming NEET.

But without further capacity investment for colleges like his, Webb believes it is inevitable that some young people will suffer.

“That’s what upsets us most,” he said. “I think of the NEETs in our city and I think, ‘I could do much better for them’.”

CEO faces ruin after fighting directors’ bonus plan

The sacked boss of an awarding body fears bankruptcy after going “nuclear” over allegations his directors planned to defraud the company.

In late 2024, former CEO of GQA Qualifications, Michael Clayton, accused five directors of scheming to plunder the non-profit company’s assets, which included £9 million in reserves.

The board’s plans, dubbed “project gemini”, involved paying themselves £500,000 “backflush” bonuses based on retrospective performance measures, and transferring some of the company’s assets to a for-profit business under their ownership.

Clayton attempted to suspend the directors and launch an independent investigation, but they seized control of the Sheffield-based firm and fired him.

GQA Qualifications then took the former CEO to the High Court, hiring lawyers who accused him of taking the “nuclear course” by launching an “attempted coup” to unlawfully oust the entire board and hand control to his “close friends and acquaintances”.

In a ruling issued in January, Mr Justice Sheldon said Clayton breached his duties as a director and employee by sharing confidential and legally privileged documents with two men he brought in to help run the company during his investigation.

Clayton also breached his duties by disobeying instructions on how he should declare a sponsorship box at Barnsley football club for tax purposes and “deceptive” editing of an email about the issue, the judge found.

‘Reasonable and proper’

However, Mr Justice Sheldon found the former CEO had “reasonable and proper” grounds to suspend directors Shaun McAllister, James Ratcliffe, Anthony Parsell, Neil Ashley and John Ogilvie, and launch an investigation into their plans.

He added: “It was reasonable for him, based on the correspondence and communications with the other directors, to act swiftly as he believed with good reason that he was about to be removed from GQA in the circumstances.”

Sheldon did not rule on whether the directors’ plans or actions were fraudulent.

Following a post-trial order to pay half of the company’s estimated £1 million in legal costs, Clayton – who received free legal representation due to lack of funds – now fears he will be made bankrupt.

He told FE Week: “It’s affected my mental health and my family. It’s impacted my faith in ethics and morality, because I knew it was wrong to do what they wanted but I have ended up on the wrong end of it.

“I’ve got four children in secondary school and college. It’s impacted them massively as it’s threatening me with personal bankruptcy.”

Profitable non-profit

GQA Qualifications, founded in 2001, offers more than 200 qualifications for the glass manufacturing and installation, nuclear, print and automotive industries, and issues CSCS cards. It had a turnover of £4.1 million in March 2023.

Its non-profit purpose is enshrined in its status as a ‘company limited by guarantee’, meaning it is owned by “members”, has no owner or shareholders, cannot pay dividends, and must reinvest “surplus” income into qualifications delivery.

Company limited by guarantee status is often used by membership bodies, associations or charities – with governing rules set out in a memorandum and articles of association.

But unlike similar organisations such as Make UK, which is owned by other companies through the company limited by guarantee structure, GQA Qualifications’ only members appear to be its directors.

Restructure and bonus battle

Project gemini, which included the directors’ plans to pay themselves bonuses, appears to have stemmed from secretive plots to “acquire” or restructure the company that began in 2023.

A review by newly appointed non-executive director Parsell, an accountant who joined that year, found the non-profit organisation was “highly profitable” but lacked proper controls and had outdated governing rules that were last updated in 2002.

On the advice of KPMG consultants, plans to form a new director-owned for-profit company that would take over some of the business were shelved due to the potential for high tax costs.

But McAllister, who is now CEO, was determined to change the company’s governing rules so £500,000 “backflush bonuses” could be paid.

Parsell opposed the bonuses, saying they amounted to “feathering one’s own nest”, and external pay consultancy 3R advised they raised governance issues.

Fraud fears crystallise

Clayton became convinced the company was in “urgent danger” of fraud by the directors after falling out with company chair Ratcliffe over concerns about project gemini.

Meanwhile, Neil Ashley, a barrister who joined as director to help “unlock” the project in September 2024, escalated concerns about Clayton’s company benefits that resulted in disciplinary action.

McAllister had offered Ashley a financial incentive if project gemini succeeded, emails show.

Clayton met with “confidante” Chris Globe and former solicitor Milton Firman, sharing confidential legal documents.

In November 2024, Clayton told the other directors he had concluded fraud was “being committed or, at the very least, contemplated”, suspended them, and appointed Globe and Firman to help him run the company.

He also shared concerns with Ofqual, the Scottish Qualifications Authority and CSCS, and tried to remove McAllister from the company’s banking mandate with Barclays.

In a showdown on November 7, the directors were barred from entering the GQA Qualifications office, but later convened an urgent board meeting where they disqualified Clayton as director and forfeited his membership. Clayton had refused to attend.

Legal proceedings which led to the judgment were launched later that month.

Clayton also has an unfair dismissal and whistleblowing claim filed at the Employment Tribunal, but this is yet to be heard.

GQA Qualifications, its new CEO McAllister, and other directors, did not respond to requests for comment.

Exam regulator Ofqual told FE Week it followed up on aspects of the case relevant to GQA Qualifications’ conditions of recognition.

‘Serious legal risk’

Commenting on the case, Nirav Patel, a partner at Bates Wells, said that while the judgment made clear Clayton’s actions “exceeded his powers”, it did not say he was wrong to be concerned about governance risks.

He added: “Unfortunately, good motives don’t give you a magic wand to ignore following the proper process.

“Even where the CEO believed the directors were acting improperly, taking confidential material, briefing third parties and attempting to ‘outmanoeuvre’ the board carries serious legal risk.

“The case outcome shows how quickly a governance dispute without following due process can lead to personal financial exposure.”

Patel said safer options for the CEO could have included raising concerns internally, making protected whistleblowing disclosures, applying to the court for relief, or resigning while documenting the reasons.

Companies limited by guarantee should also regularly review their governing rules, he added.

Death sentence for jails’ work-programme expansion

An expansion of employer-led work programmes in prisons has been quietly ditched after a million-pound procurement proved “poor value for taxpayer money”.

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) launched a £1 million tender two years ago searching for employers to deliver HMP Academies in 17 prisons over a four-year period.

But Freedom of Information data reveals just one academy was set up since the contract was procured.

The MoJ will now abandon the expansion as the procurement process was said to “no longer represent good value for the taxpayer”.

Under the HMP Academy model, employers deliver training in-house to serving prisoners. Participants are guaranteed a job interview for a live vacancy on completion and receive formal qualifications if employers deem it necessary.

Before the attempted expansion into 17 prisons, a handful of HMP Academies existed backed by employers such as Timpson and Halfords.

The only additional HMP Academy to open following the procurement was in HMP Wealstun, near Wetherby in West Yorkshire, where Leeds-based facilities management company SBFM set up a cleaning academy in January 2025.

An SBFM spokesperson told FE Week that 31 offenders participated in the academy with an average attendance rate of 84 per cent, which includes prisoners who dropped out.

The MoJ refused to detail the completion rates at the academy and how many participants were offered a job interview on data protection grounds, but claimed it was a “high proportion”.

SBFM said it “honoured” the commitment to offer job interviews to course completers.

FOI data revealed that five or fewer programme completers progressed into employment within six months of release.

An SBFM spokesperson said the company was “proud to be operating the only established HMP Academy”, adding that it worked “closely with the MoJ and HMP Wealstun to deliver meaningful employment opportunities for participants”.

The MoJ said it would “take forward learnings from the pilot including how we improve future procurement processes for work and education services”.

A spokesperson added: “This government is committed to delivering punishment that cuts crime. That is why every prison provides the education and training needed to reduce reoffending, and we are strengthening partnerships between governors and local employers so more people can find work on release.”

Con-demned

Jon Collins, chief executive of Prisoners’ Education Trust (PET), said it was “deeply disappointing” the MoJ had failed to create more academies.

“The HMP Academies programme was a chance to build on these pockets of success and it’s deeply disappointing that the programme has not been able to deliver on its original aims,” he said.

In March 2023, the MoJ sought private companies to pilot the launch of specialist training centres in open prisons to boost employment prospects when offenders were released.

Twelve suppliers were awarded contracts, including City & Guilds and SBFM. No payments have since been made to the suppliers aside from SBFM, the MoJ said.

The aim was to build on existing employment partnerships with retail and hospitality companies.

Halfords started its first training programme in men’s prison HMP Onley in 2014. It now runs an academy in women’s prison HMP Drake Hall, set up in 2017.

The MoJ does not collect attendance data in legacy academies, such as in HMP Drake Hall, but claimed levels remained “consistently strong”.

At least a dozen of these partnerships exist between prisons and private companies.

Pub chain Greene King has opened four training academies since 2019, supporting over 350 prison leavers into work. Learners enrol in 12-week programmes in barista, catering, front of house and back of house roles, later earning a City & Guilds level 1 hospitality qualification and the chance to interview for relevant positions at Greene King pubs once they are released.

Offenders can also view job vacancies and receive help with applications in employment hubs available in 93 prisons.

Prisons can access help from businesses through employment advisory boards and regional employment councils to support prison leavers.

Collins told FE Week the HMP Academies expansion was an attempt to provide prisoners with skills and qualifications that employers are looking for, but pointed out that core education provision had been cut by 25 per cent in prisons this year.

“It shows how difficult it is to deliver innovative programmes in a prison system that is underfunded, understaffed and overcrowded,” he added.

Don’t scrap industry-prized diploma, pleads BRIT School boss

The head of a school that counts Adele and Olivia Dean among its alumni has warned against cuts to qualifications that allow creative students to “go deep into their art form”.

The government announced in its response to the curriculum and assessment review last year that it would introduce new V Levels. They would be equivalent to one A Level and replace hundreds of existing vocational qualifications.

Most vocational post-16 creative subjects are covered by the level 3 extended diploma, which is delivered in partnership with the University of the Arts London (UAL), and is equivalent to three A Levels.

But these diplomas will be replaced by V Levels and T Levels by 2030.

The Francis review recommended that while most V Levels would be the same size as A Levels, there would some larger V Levels, including for creative subjects.

But the government’s response argued that “having both large V Levels and T Levels will create confusion”.

The BRIT School in Croydon offers several extended diplomas including in performing arts, music, dance, film and visual arts.

Stuart Worden, its principal, said the industry valued large creative and performing arts qualifications.

“The idea that there won’t be a substantial [V Level] doesn’t really bear thinking about,” he told FE Week.

“Employers [in the arts industry] are so happy with the extended diploma, because it’s made people adaptable.

“We have so many stories […] of people taking up jobs straight away with tech companies, with dance companies, with education, theatre companies, because they’ve been given the chance to go deep into their art form.”

T Levels ‘too rigid’ for arts

Adrianne Chapman, the school’s vice-principal, said that while T Levels “work really well in certain spheres” such as hospitality and engineering, they risked being too rigid and fixed towards a specific career path.

“The creative industries in their nature need agile, adaptable, amendable people, [who are] open to change, so some of the rigidity of the occupational standards is a concern.

“A lot of our young people want to be creatives in a broad sense, and they might specialise, but we don’t cut off avenues.

“We have amazing dancers that are now broadcasters, because that’s where the career took them.

“Being quite linear on a narrow path to one particular job poses quite a lot of challenges.”

The BRIT School has been asked to be involved in developing the T Level for performing and the creative arts, with Worden saying it would aim for it to be as close to the existing level 3 diploma as possible.

But he warned that if pupils were not given a chance to study the arts at a deep level, they would have to do so outside of school time if they wanted to get into competitive performing arts schools.

“If you wanted to be an international footballer and you are only allowed to do that for five hours a week, it’s never going to happen.

“The idea that only those that could afford to do additional training outside of the school curriculum would have a chance of getting into high establishments … it’s surely not what any government would want.”

He was unable to say at this stage whether the school would offer V Levels or T Levels after the extended diploma was phased out.

Case-by-case basis

The government said it would look at subjects on a case-by-case basis to decide whether a large qualification was needed. In these cases they would become T Levels rather than V Levels.

But Labour peer Jane Ramsey said the response was “plain silly” during a recent House of Lords debate.

Ramsey, whose daughter attends the BRIT School, said this was “pointlessly destructive of world-beating creative vocational education”.

She urged the government to rethink its response and “back the wonderful provision that already exists”.

A Department for Education spokesperson said: “V Levels are deliberately A Level-sized so students can combine them flexibly, and support progression into higher level learning.

“T Levels will be the only large qualification for students who want a sector-focused choice.

“We will work with the further education sector to make sure that V Levels and T Levels meet the needs of creative industries and the students who want to pursue them.”

Scrapping essays over AI fears ‘never off the table’, says Ofqual boss

Scrapping extended writing coursework because of fears of artificial intelligence cheating is “never off the table,” Ofqual’s boss has warned.

Ian Bauckham is “evaluating” exam boards’ responses to his letter last month, which called for more action to crack down on AI misuse.

Little coursework remains in England’s assessment system after a cull by the Conservatives, but the chief regulator is concerned about extended writing essays that make up 20 per cent of history and English A Levels.

He told FE Week’s sister publication Schools Week there were “various possible courses of action”, adding: “The most obvious one that people talk about is just simply getting rid of non-examined assessment. And it may be that in some cases that is the right thing to do.”

Asked whether this was something Ofqual was considering, he said: “It can never be off the table.

“It’s worth remembering that we are in a reform process for GCSE and A Levels at the moment, and one of the key things we’ll be doing is making sure that where coursework is proposed in the revised qualifications, it can be delivered in such a way that it’s secure and authentic.

“If it can’t be, we have to ask the question, can we allow this to be included?”

But there were other options “if you genuinely believe that the process of researching and completing an assignment is an important part of the learning process”, he said.

This included more “checkpoints” where teachers reviewed the work with pupils and signed it off as authentic.

Pupils might have to increase source referencing and footnotes “so it’s clear you’ve not just asked ChatGPT to write 10,000 words for you”.

Boards’ ‘interesting proposals’

Bauckham is less worried about creative art coursework, where paint and pens are used in front of teachers. But questions remain around digital art.

He said boards have made “some interesting proposals for what they intend to do”. He also requested stronger arrangements to crack down on mobile phones in exam halls.

The four exam boards refused to provide copies of their letters to Schools Week.

The Joint Council for Qualifications, the boards’ members’ body, said it was “constantly monitoring these evolving risks and adapting our policies and processes appropriately”.

It would continue to strengthen its guidance and support for teachers, who “remain well-positioned to ensure students understand and follow the rules”. It would also continue to develop models to detect AI.

Exam boards ‘have business strategies’

Bauckham, appointed interim chief regulator in 2024 and then given the role permanently last year, has taken a strong stance on his relationship with awarding organisations.

For example, after announcing new powers to publicly “rebuke” rule-breaking boards last year, he said awarding organisations “didn’t like it very much, which gave me assurance that it might be effective”.

There is also tension around Ofqual’s proposals to initially limit on-screen exams to two subjects per board.

Colin Hughes, AQA’s chief executive, previously warned this was “unduly restrictive”.

“It means that exam boards like AQA, that have been developing and trialling digital exams for a number of years, will be inhibited in building that all-important base of evidence and experience.”

Bauckham said his job was to “steward” the exams system “to make sure it maintains its place in public esteem”.

“It doesn’t surprise me that some of the exam boards have been clear that they want us to go further in on-screen assessment. Exam boards will have their business strategies, they will see that there are benefits for them for greater on-screen assessment.

“But my job is not to do what exam boards want me to do. My job is to look after the national asset.”

Digital decision looms

Ofqual will publish its final decision on digital exams later this year, but Bauckham said the “public mood on tech in education is evolving”.

“When we first started thinking about on-screen assessment, before the pandemic, there was a more widespread assumption that more education would be on-screen and that would be the public expectation for education.

“But since then, the anxiety about excessive screen use by children and young people and excessive social media use, the damaging effects of doom scrolling … have risen in public consciousness.

“The public is now much more ambivalent about what they think about young people and screens. I think that has an impact on decisions that we’ll take about on-screen assessments.”

Future Ofqual

Reflecting on Ofqual’s role in the sector, Bauckham said the regulator was now “far more aware of the wider implications of the work it does”.

“Ofqual, in its first decade of existence, was a more internally focused technical organisation than perhaps it is now.

“That’s not to say that the technical work is less important, but I think we’ve just got a broader understanding of what qualifications are and what they do.”

It was a “legitimate to ask to what extent we think Ofqual needs to a brand that is very high in public awareness”. For example, Ofsted was a household name.

He referenced the Food Standards Agency. “When you buy your shopping, you’re not thinking about them, but without them, the food you buy wouldn’t be trustworthy.

“So there are ways in which we do want to be in the public’s mind as an organisation that safeguards the quality of qualifications.”

The regulator would be closely involved in curriculum and assessment reforms in the months and years ahead.

While Ofqual did not sign off subject content, Bauckham said it engaged with the DfE through the process – and he would not hold back if he disagreed.

“If the DfE makes proposals for content which I think will have a materially negative impact on the qualifications I will say absolutely, without fear or favour. But I’m pleased to say that the relationship is constructive. The process is working well.”