The 14-16 funding gap is holding back technical education

The industrial strategy promises to boost skills in key sectors. But while post-16 technical courses get extra funding, pre-16 technical education is left behind. It’s time for more fairness in the funding system

The industrial strategy promises to boost skills in key sectors. But while post-16 technical courses get extra funding, pre-16 technical education is left behind. It’s time for more fairness in the funding system

13 Jul 2025, 5:23

skills white paper

The new industrial strategy states that the government will use the 16-19 high-value course premia to uplift funding to courses that support key sectors. It also acknowledges that the nation’s skills pipeline starts at school.

But as things stand, technical education courses at pre-16 will receive no such uplift. This leaves schools and colleges in the 14-16 space to deliver expensive technical courses that support high-growth sectors, with no extra funding.  

For Baker Dearing, which works to support University Technical College secondary schools, we believe that pre-16 providers should receive a technical subject funding uplift, as post-16 providers do.

If 14-16 providers are expected to prepare young people for the workplace, the technical education courses that deliver this should be supported by a corresponding funding uplift similar to that received by post-16 provision.

The Department for Education already gives different weightings to technical subjects at key stage 5. Key stage 4 providers facing high costs to deliver those subjects should receive the same support. This will ensure consistency, addresses cost disparities, and ought to encourage progression to T Levels and apprenticeships.

The high value course premium, for example, gives providers £600 for each student taking certain level three courses in specific subject areas; including engineering and manufacturing technologies.

The government guidance states the premium is “to encourage and support provision that leads to higher wage returns, to enable a more productive economy”.

An uplift to KS4 technical subjects would support this objective, through initiatives that can progress young people into high-paying careers such as the college sector’s expanding 14-16 provision and Baker Dearing’s own UTC Sleeve initiative. The latter involves placing a high-quality, technical pathway within mainstream schools to reverse the decline in key stage 4 technical education and promote progression to T Levels, apprenticeships, and STEM university courses.

Uplifting destinations

Technical education is expensive at any key stage: Specialist teachers must be recruited and industry-standard equipment must be purchased. Then the teachers must be trained to use the equipment, whether that be 3D printers, CAD/CAM (computer-aided design and manufacturing) or, eventually, quantum computers.

There are also the associated costs: maintenance, increased energy costs, and consumable materials. The DfE recognises the increased costs of this provision, which is why it provides the post-16 programme weightings.

The benefits from a KS4 technical funding uplift would be seen throughout the skills pipeline.  Last academic year, a fifth of UTC Year 13 leavers progressed onto an apprenticeship – four times more than the national average. We put that down to the fact most UTC students start at 14, or maybe earlier. They have the opportunity to study the technical subjects needed for work at a relatively early age. Also, as one UTC leader said to us recently, they learn what they do not want to do and can target their preferred destination.

That sort of progression is good for the student but also good for the economy, as more young people will be prepared through apprenticeships and T Levels for careers in high growth sectors like advanced manufacturing that were identified in the industrial strategy.

Youth unemployment could also be tackled

Technical education at key stage 4 can also be enjoyable and engaging for students. Ben Lydon, writing for FE Week last October, stated that 14-16 college provision shows students from disadvantaged backgrounds “a future more hopeful than the one they left behind”.

Just four per cent of UTC Year 13 leavers became NEET (not in education, employment or training) last year. At a time when one in eight young people nationally are out of work or training, we should seize on anything that helps reduce youth unemployment.

If the government wants to feed talented young workers into high-growth sectors and increase youth employment, then the case is clear for an uplift.

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