School and college leaders call for ‘meaningful pause’ to planned BTec reforms

Hundreds of school and college leaders have called for post-16 vocational qualification reforms to be paused for at least a year to ensure students know what courses they can study next year.

Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson must immediately pause plans to withdraw funding for a number of applied general qualifications (AGQs), such as BTecs, to ensure young people are not left “without a viable pathway” to higher education or skilled employment, leaders have said.

A letter to Ms Phillipson, which has been signed by the leaders of 455 schools and colleges in England , calls on the Government to pause the plans and confirm that students will be able to enrol on all existing AGQs in 2025/26.

Our open evenings take place in November and yet we will not have any clarity on the courses we can offer until December – that is madness

Altaf Hussain, principal of Luton Sixth Form College

AGQs are level 3 qualifications, which include BTecs, for students who want to undertake a broad study of a specific vocational area.

The Department for Education (DfE) under the previous government had planned to remove funding for a number of AGQs that “overlap” with T-levels in England – which are considered to be broadly equivalent to three A-levels.

In July, Ms Phillipson announced a “short review” of the planned post-16 qualification reforms, which is due to conclude before the end of 2024.

But a coalition of leaders at schools and colleges in England – who between them educate 388,000 young people aged between 16 and 19 – have called for a “meaningful pause” to the reforms to ensure they can plan their curriculum offer for the 2025/26 academic year and the staffing required.

Uncertainty about what can be offered next year will make it “extremely difficult” to provide effective advice and guidance to students, they said.

In the letter to the Education Secretary – which was co-ordinated by the Protect Student Choice campaign – the school and college leaders said: “The proposed review will not provide the certainty we need to plan for 2025/26.

It is unclear what we can tell prospective students and their parents/carers - business leaders are also asking questions. All in all, this is a bit of a mess

Darren Hankey, Hartlepool College of Further Education

“Only a meaningful pause to defunding will ensure that qualification reform can be conducted in an orderly way that leaves no young person without a viable pathway to higher education or skilled employment.

“We urge you to announce an immediate pause to the defunding of applied general qualifications and confirm that students will be able to enrol on all existing AGQs up to and including the 2025/26 academic year.

“This one-year pause is the minimum required to ensure that young people are not disadvantaged by your proposed reforms.”

Altaf Hussain, principal and chief executive of Luton Sixth Form College, said: “Pausing the defunding of applied general qualifications like BTecs would significantly alleviate uncertainty and anxiety this year for me, my staff and most importantly our young people and their parents.

“Our open evenings take place in November and yet we will not have any clarity on the courses we can offer until December – that is madness”.

Darren Hankey, principal and chief executive of Hartlepool College of Further Education, said: “The ongoing uncertainty is unhelpful – our first open event for current Year 11 pupils is in a couple of weeks’ time.

“Similarly, prospectuses, websites and other forms of communication need to be updated.

There must be a proper pause to the defunding of AGQs because the current proposal is unfair to schools, teachers and most importantly young people

Stuart Worden, principal of The BRIT School

“It is unclear what we can tell prospective students and their parents/carers – business leaders are also asking questions. All in all, this is a bit of a mess.”

Stuart Worden, principal of The BRIT School in Croydon, said: “There must be a proper pause to the defunding of AGQs because the current proposal is unfair to schools, teachers and most importantly young people.

“It will make planning and imagining your future very difficult.

“We urge the Government to pause defunding and give us the chance to support curriculum changes in a reasonable time frame.”

A Department for Education spokesperson said: “The Government took immediate action to pause the defunding that was due to occur from 1 August 2024 and announced a focused review.

“The review will allow us to support BTEC students, roll out T levels and bring certainty to the sector.

“We are pausing defunding for the duration of the review and we will conclude and communicate the outcome of that before the turn of the year.”