In order to “direct” students towards T Levels, the government announced a ban on AGQ diplomas and extended diplomas in T Level subjects in December 2024. As a result, popular and well- respected applied general qualifications (AGQs) in subjects such as health and social care, applied science and IT will be scrapped in 2026, with highly regarded AGQs in business and engineering due to follow in 2027.
Last month, we published a report on behalf of the 28 organisations in the Protect Student Choice campaign warning how such a ban could lead to 52,000 fewer young people studying health and science courses from next year (a drop of 45 per cent) and 11,000 (a third) fewer young people on digital courses.
The qualifications gap across all sectors will of course be much larger, as the government estimates that just 91,200 students will be studying a T Level in 2027 – the last year that all remaining AGQs will be funded – while there are currently 277,380 students studying an AGQ.
What will students do next year when AGQs are no longer available? We know from the government’s own projections that most will not be studying T Levels. Other options such as level 2, A-level or a combination of small alternative academic qualifications (AAQs), will in many cases be sub-optimal workarounds.
The clear risk with reducing student choice in this way is that learners who would have previously studied AGQs will either underperform or disengage from education altogether. Taken together, this could reverse the recent progress made in widening access to higher education and lead to an increase in the number of young people not in education, employment or training (NEET).
And what will employers do when successful and well-established qualifications aligned to high-growth sectors of the economy are scrapped? Representative bodies such as Care England and techUK joined with employers such as the NHS and Cisco to support our report’s call to retain AGQs in T Level subjects.
In June, skills minister Jacqui Smith reconfirmed the government’s position in a letter to our campaign: “The government remains committed to T Levels being the best large qualification in routes where they are available”.
So, as things stand, colleges and schools will be enrolling students on diploma and extended diploma-size AGQs in applied science, health and social care and IT for the last time this month.
But rather than directing students towards T Levels, the government’s ban will direct many students towards a qualification black hole.
The last chance to avoid this lies with the curriculum and assessment review (CAR). If its final report endorses our recommendation that diploma and extended diploma size qualifications should be permitted in T Level subjects, and the government accepts that recommendation, many students starting Year 11 this month will not be left without a pathway next year.
That short-term certainty would be very welcome. But more fundamentally, policymakers must also accept that a qualification system that requires learners to choose between an academic or technical route at the age of 16 is neither realistic nor desirable.
For many young people, applied qualifications provide a more effective route to higher education or skilled employment than A-levels or T Levels.
Refreshing the content of AGQs makes sense; scrapping them altogether makes no sense at all. So it was encouraging to see an acknowledgement in the CAR’s interim report that other high-quality qualifications are needed alongside A-levels and T Levels.
The current policy of approving a small number of small ‘alternative’ academic and technical qualifications by exception is no substitute for a genuine applied pathway.
The CAR’s final report and the government’s response will be pivotal moments for post-16 education.
Is a government committed to breaking down barriers to opportunity really going to pull the rug from under tens of thousands of young people next year?
Is a government committed to kickstarting economic growth really going to scrap qualifications linked to the very same high growth sectors of the economy it has prioritised in its industrial strategy?
Let’s hope the answer to both questions is a resounding ‘no’. That will require making a short-term and long-term commitment to applied qualifications. A full suite of AGQs of all sizes has an essential role to play as the middle (equally important) route in the qualification system alongside A-levels and T Levels.
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