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8 April 2026

Tag: T-levels

Frontier Economics is right: the T-level tender approach is not viable

Important new research carried out for the DfE demonstrates that a single awarding body for T-levels would have disastrous consequences – let’s hope the Department for Education listens, writes Gemma Gathercole It’s a rare moment, working in policy, when a government-published research report quite literally takes the words out of your mouth, but that was […]

Minister announces T-levels delay

The first T-levels will be delayed until September 2020 – a year later than planned – the government has announced The first two pathfinder qualifications were supposed to be approved by February 2019, with teaching to commence from that September, according to England’s post-16 skills plan, published July 2016 and based on the recommendations from the […]

Exclusive: T-Level crisis exposed as DfE fail to appoint any advisory panel members

More trouble has erupted in T-Level planning, after it emerged that no-one has yet been appointed to the advisory development panels that should have met for the first time four months ago. FE Week made a Freedom of Information request for the names of all the appointments made to these technical education panels, after the […]

Investigates: Are T-level plans in trouble?

– Greening begs big business for help with “substantive” work placements, while DfE refuses to commit to original plan for 2019 launch    The education secretary has explained to FE Week how she’ll tackle the mammoth task of convincing huge numbers of employers to run three-month work placements for T-level learners. Justine Greening called on businesses […]

IFS: Parties’ spending plans leave 16 to 18 education with 10% less than schools

General election manifesto plans of all three major parties’ proposals will leave spending for 16 to 18-year-olds around 10 per cent lower than secondary schools, according to new analysis from the Institute for Fiscal Studies. The think tank says that while the Conservatives, Labour and Liberal Democrats are all proposing to spend more on this […]

T-levels are great, but can government make them as prestigious as A-levels?

Conservative manifesto pledge: To replace vocational qualifications with T-levels that have 50% more teaching time Catherine Sezen makes the argument FOR In the run up to the general election the political parties are focused on the importance of skills; both employability and technical or vocational skills are on the agenda. Labour and the Conservatives explicitly […]

Profile Nadhim Zahawi, education secretary

Nadhim Zahawi is England’s new education secretary, FE Week profiled Zahawi back in 2016 when he served the then Prime minister, David Cameron, as apprenticeship ambassador.