V Levels aren’t the answer, and Burnham knows it

One striking aspect of Andy Burnham’s very welcome announcement about reopening technical education routes for 14 year olds is that V Levels are not mentioned. When explaining this reform, he said it was not about “giving kids another qualification in a system that doesn’t work”, but about “transforming the system entirely”.

V Levels are not the answer to the challenge facing 16-19 learners not suited for the A Level route, for three main reasons.

First, they address the wrong problem. Qualifications are important milestones on a learning journey, but they are not the journey itself. The real issue is the lack of pathways and progression routes for vocational students, made worse by the collapse of level 2 16-19 apprenticeships.

Second, they will be a massive distraction for providers, already struggling with chronic underfunding and technical teacher shortages. Implementing the reforms will take time and energy away from the real task of building stronger progression pathways.

Third, by ripping up the existing 16-19 vocational curriculum they risk leaving learners having to navigate unfamiliar qualifications of untested value with only patchy careers advice and guidance to help them.

It’s hard to have much confidence in the DfE’s ability to make a success of this. Remember the 14-19 Diplomas, launched in 2008 and withdrawn in 2013? And T Levels, launched in 2020 and now undergoing emergency surgery to try and resuscitate them?

Qualification reform is complex, involving getting many components interacting effectively. It’s therefore only worth doing if there is a big prize to be won.

In this case, the reforms are not going to improve a post-16 phase recently described as “structured in a way to exacerbate inequality” by the Deaton Review of Inequality. They are unlikely to have any impact on NEET (not in education, employment or training) numbers. They are not going to solve the skills gaps holding back the economy. They are not going to help revive apprenticeships for young people – the implementation plan barely mentions apprenticeships.

As Alan Milburn’s hard-hitting “Young People and Work” report observes: “The education and skills system…is designed to produce qualifications rather than working adults. Until that changes..the tail of failure will persist.”

Thankfully, with the arrival of a new government the focus has at last shifted to tackling the systemic issues that have previously been side-stepped in favour of the DfE’s tired old playbook of qualification reform. It’s too early – and details are as yet too scarce – to evaluate how effective the new approach to technical education reform will be. But they are tackling the right problem  – the failure of our education system to properly embrace technical and vocational pathways.

They open up the prospect of new mechanisms being found to properly coordinate school and college offers in each local authority area and ensure that a full range of well-resourced and attractive technical and academic courses are readily available in all parts of the country.

Where does this leave the V Level reforms already underway? Given their potential to divert energy and resources away from much more important issues, it might be better to kick them into the long grass, put them on pause and prioritise the new, more radical technical education agenda. Time will tell if they are viewed as having a place in the revolution the new PM is leading. But in the meantime we need to concentrate on opening new doors of opportunity, not redecorating the old ones.