Students risk falling through ‘qualifications gap' under post-16 plans
A report by the Protect Student Choice campaign warned reducing student choice for post-16 qualifications risks 'reversing' progress in widening access to higher education and it could lead to more young people not in employment.
The coalition – which includes organisations representing students and staff in colleges and schools – is calling on the curriculum and assessment review to recommend 'reversing the ban on AGQ diplomas and extended diplomas in T-level areas' in its final report which is due to be published in the autumn.
AGQs are Level 3 qualifications, which include BTecs, for students who want to undertake a broad study of a specific vocational area.
In December, the Labour Government announced 157 vocational qualifications, which the previous Conservative administration had planned to remove funding from, would be retained beyond July this year until reformed qualifications become more established in the system.
Following a review of Level 3 qualifications that 'overlap' with T-levels, the Government said 57 qualifications in digital, construction and health and science would be funded until July 2026.
A further 100 qualifications in engineering, agriculture, business and creative would retain their funding until July 2027.
The first T-level courses – which are considered to be broadly equivalent to three A-levels – were launched in 2020 in England and they are being rolled out gradually.
Department for Education (DfE) guidance, published in February, has outlined plans to remove funding from 'large qualifications' in a number of T-level subject areas in the future.
An analysis from the Protect Student Choice campaign suggests there could be 52,000 fewer young people studying health and science courses each year if funding is removed for AGQs in this area, and it added that nearly 11,000 fewer young people could study digital courses each year.
It said more than 200,000 students are currently studying AGQs that are 'either being scrapped or have an uncertain future' which makes it 'difficult' for colleges and schools to plan their curriculum, recruit and train the right staff, or to provide appropriate guidance to younger pupils.
The report warned: 'We are deeply concerned that the Government's blanket ban on diplomas and extended diplomas will create a qualifications gap that tens of thousands of students will potentially fall through, leaving many young people without a suitable pathway in the future.'
Labour MP Gareth Snell, chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Sixth Form Education, said: 'Sixth forms and colleges up and down the country know the vital role that AGQs play in helping students to progress to higher education or skilled employment.
'Limiting the choice of qualification in certain subjects to T-levels will leave some young people without a suitable pathway at the age of 16, and some employers without the skilled workforce they need.'
Professor Martin Green, chief executive of Care England, said: 'Qualifications like the diploma and extended diploma in health and social care are highly valued by providers of adult social care in England as a source of introducing younger people to a career in social care.
'Scrapping these qualifications would close off a well-established pathway to entering the profession and exacerbate the workforce crisis in the care sector for a younger population we are keen to promote access to.'
Anne Murdoch, college leadership adviser at the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), said: 'We strongly urge the Government to retain these popular and valued applied general qualifications.
'We support the introduction of T-levels, but we do not understand why this must be at the expense of other tried and trusted vocational qualifications which work well for many students.
'At a time when we are seeing rising numbers of young people who are not in education, employment or training, it is surely essential that we provide a choice of post-16 pathways rather than narrowing their options and making matters worse.'
A DfE spokeswoman said: 'Through our plan for change we are building a skills system that will drive forward opportunity and deliver the growth that our economy needs.
'T-levels will be at the forefront of our technical education offer. Alongside them, newly reformed qualifications will become available for delivery at Level 3 at the start of the next academic year.
'These are high-quality, aligned to occupational standards in technical routes and offer learners clear routes to higher education or skilled employment.
'The department's position on further plans for reform to Level 3 qualifications will be set out soon, informed by the independent curriculum and assessment review.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
North Wales Chronicle
2 hours ago
- North Wales Chronicle
Fact check: Recognising a Palestinian state, misleading tsunami video and deportations vs returns
Is the Government on track with its pledge to recognise a Palestinian state? On July 29, the Prime Minister announced that the UK would recognise Palestine as a state in September, ahead of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly, unless Israel meets certain conditions. Labour's manifesto committed to formally recognising a Palestinian state 'as a contribution to a renewed peace process which results in a two-state solution'. A 'two-state solution' refers to a proposed framework to resolve the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, in which a sovereign Palestinian state is established alongside Israel. Previous efforts at a peace process did not result in a sovereign Palestinian state. UK governments have long been in favour of a two-state solution, as well as recognising a Palestinian state as part of a process towards that goal. All members of the G7 group of countries have pledged support for a two-state solution, as has the EU and China. Palestine is currently designated by the UN as a 'permanent observer state', a form of non-member state, meaning it cannot vote on decisions made by the UN's main organs and bodies, such as the General Assembly. However, the majority of UN member states have formally recognised Palestine. According to media reports, as of July 2025, some 147 UN member states formally recognised Palestinian statehood, not including France, which in the same month committed to recognising Palestine at the General Assembly in September. The UK is not included in this figure, although it does have a Consulate General in Jerusalem to assist British nationals in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. It has been reported that a number of UK peers have questioned the legal basis for any recognition of a Palestinian state. Full Fact has contacted the Government for comment on this. How fact checkers helped set the record straight on PM's viral video When 31-year-old Abby Raworth first realised her photo and name were being shared online – falsely linked to a viral video involving the Prime Minister – she assumed it was a mix-up. Posts on social media claimed that the woman in the video was not mum-of-three Nicola but was really a 'paid actress' or 'actress and agent' named Abby Raworth. Full Fact's investigation brought to light how much was being written about her online 'without any regard for if it was correct or not.' Abby has spoken to Full Fact about her experience, telling us: 'What shocks me is how little people bothered to do regarding checks before they used someone's name and accused them of something. There is a lack of accountability for what comes out of peoples' mouths and if it had happened to any of those people they would have a different opinion on it.' We're grateful to Abby for sharing her story to help show exactly why Full Fact exists to counter the harm caused by misinformation. Old tsunami video circulates amid Pacific evacuations A video circulating online amid major evacuations across the Pacific is claimed to show a tsunami which has taken 'thousands of lives'. But this is misleading. The footage shows three people, including the person filming, narrowly escape huge waves that crash into some small boats on a shore. It was shared online following news of an 8.8 magnitude earthquake off the coast of Russia, which triggered the evacuation of almost two million people across Japan. Warnings were also put in place in other locations including Hawaii, Ecuador, Indonesia, Peru and China. A caption shared with the video said: 'Massive Earthquake triggers Tsunami taking thousands of lives in seconds with little to no warning.' But this footage is not current, or related to the earthquake in Russia or the subsequent tsunami warnings. It actually showed a tsunami which occurred on the west coast of Greenland in 2017, triggered by a landslide. That tsunami did not kill 'thousands', as stated in the social media posts. Four people were killed, and nine others were injured. The same footage has been wrongly shared in the wake of other earthquakes before. Has Labour carried out 'record deportations'? Labour MP Mike Tapp recently claimed that the Government has carried out 'record deportations'. We've frequently seen MPs and ministers using the word 'deportations' when referring to all immigration returns. Not all immigration returns are 'deportations'. We don't actually know how many meet the official definition of a deportation, which the Home Office defines as 'a specific subset of returns which are enforced either following a criminal conviction or when it is judged that a person's removal from the UK is conducive to the public good'. We do know, however, that enforced returns – the category of returns which includes deportations – account for a minority (26%) of all returns carried out under Labour during its first year in office. According to ad-hoc figures published by the Home Office, during Labour's first year in office a total of 35,052 returns were recorded. We don't have the data to compare this exact period to the same period in previous years, but official immigration statistics show that this figure is not a record for the number of immigration returns over a 12-month period, going back to 2004 when this data series began. These figures show that immigration returns over a 12-month period were consistently above 40,000 between 2010 and 2016, for example. It does appear, however, that the 35,052 returns in the first year of this Labour government represents the highest 12-month figure since 2017. While we don't know how many of these returns were official 'deportations', the figures show that the 9,115 enforced returns carried out between 5 July 2024 and 4 July 2025 also do not represent a record. While this figure is the highest number of enforced returns carried out over a 12-month period since 2018, prior to 2018 enforced returns were consistently above 10,000 over a 12-month period. MPs should use statistics transparently and with all relevant context and caveats, and quickly rectify oversights when they occur.
Glasgow Times
2 hours ago
- Glasgow Times
Fact check: Recognising a Palestinian state, misleading tsunami video and deportations vs returns
Is the Government on track with its pledge to recognise a Palestinian state? On July 29, the Prime Minister announced that the UK would recognise Palestine as a state in September, ahead of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly, unless Israel meets certain conditions. Labour's manifesto committed to formally recognising a Palestinian state 'as a contribution to a renewed peace process which results in a two-state solution'. A 'two-state solution' refers to a proposed framework to resolve the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, in which a sovereign Palestinian state is established alongside Israel. Previous efforts at a peace process did not result in a sovereign Palestinian state. UK governments have long been in favour of a two-state solution, as well as recognising a Palestinian state as part of a process towards that goal. All members of the G7 group of countries have pledged support for a two-state solution, as has the EU and China. Palestine is currently designated by the UN as a 'permanent observer state', a form of non-member state, meaning it cannot vote on decisions made by the UN's main organs and bodies, such as the General Assembly. However, the majority of UN member states have formally recognised Palestine. According to media reports, as of July 2025, some 147 UN member states formally recognised Palestinian statehood, not including France, which in the same month committed to recognising Palestine at the General Assembly in September. The UK is not included in this figure, although it does have a Consulate General in Jerusalem to assist British nationals in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. It has been reported that a number of UK peers have questioned the legal basis for any recognition of a Palestinian state. Full Fact has contacted the Government for comment on this. How fact checkers helped set the record straight on PM's viral video When 31-year-old Abby Raworth first realised her photo and name were being shared online – falsely linked to a viral video involving the Prime Minister – she assumed it was a mix-up. Posts on social media claimed that the woman in the video was not mum-of-three Nicola but was really a 'paid actress' or 'actress and agent' named Abby Raworth. Full Fact's investigation brought to light how much was being written about her online 'without any regard for if it was correct or not.' Abby has spoken to Full Fact about her experience, telling us: 'What shocks me is how little people bothered to do regarding checks before they used someone's name and accused them of something. There is a lack of accountability for what comes out of peoples' mouths and if it had happened to any of those people they would have a different opinion on it.' We're grateful to Abby for sharing her story to help show exactly why Full Fact exists to counter the harm caused by misinformation. Old tsunami video circulates amid Pacific evacuations A video circulating online amid major evacuations across the Pacific is claimed to show a tsunami which has taken 'thousands of lives'. But this is misleading. The footage shows three people, including the person filming, narrowly escape huge waves that crash into some small boats on a shore. It was shared online following news of an 8.8 magnitude earthquake off the coast of Russia, which triggered the evacuation of almost two million people across Japan. Warnings were also put in place in other locations including Hawaii, Ecuador, Indonesia, Peru and China. A caption shared with the video said: 'Massive Earthquake triggers Tsunami taking thousands of lives in seconds with little to no warning.' But this footage is not current, or related to the earthquake in Russia or the subsequent tsunami warnings. It actually showed a tsunami which occurred on the west coast of Greenland in 2017, triggered by a landslide. That tsunami did not kill 'thousands', as stated in the social media posts. Four people were killed, and nine others were injured. The same footage has been wrongly shared in the wake of other earthquakes before. Has Labour carried out 'record deportations'? Labour MP Mike Tapp recently claimed that the Government has carried out 'record deportations'. We've frequently seen MPs and ministers using the word 'deportations' when referring to all immigration returns. Not all immigration returns are 'deportations'. We don't actually know how many meet the official definition of a deportation, which the Home Office defines as 'a specific subset of returns which are enforced either following a criminal conviction or when it is judged that a person's removal from the UK is conducive to the public good'. We do know, however, that enforced returns – the category of returns which includes deportations – account for a minority (26%) of all returns carried out under Labour during its first year in office. According to ad-hoc figures published by the Home Office, during Labour's first year in office a total of 35,052 returns were recorded. We don't have the data to compare this exact period to the same period in previous years, but official immigration statistics show that this figure is not a record for the number of immigration returns over a 12-month period, going back to 2004 when this data series began. These figures show that immigration returns over a 12-month period were consistently above 40,000 between 2010 and 2016, for example. It does appear, however, that the 35,052 returns in the first year of this Labour government represents the highest 12-month figure since 2017. While we don't know how many of these returns were official 'deportations', the figures show that the 9,115 enforced returns carried out between 5 July 2024 and 4 July 2025 also do not represent a record. While this figure is the highest number of enforced returns carried out over a 12-month period since 2018, prior to 2018 enforced returns were consistently above 10,000 over a 12-month period. MPs should use statistics transparently and with all relevant context and caveats, and quickly rectify oversights when they occur.
Scotsman
3 hours ago
- Scotsman
Political opinion: Gregor Poynton MP backs new SME Strategy to boost local entrepreneurs, unlock finance and support main street growth in the Livingston constituency
- Government launches landmark SME Strategy to tackle late payments and unlock £4bn in finance for small businesses - New laws will give the UK the strongest protections in the G7 for small firms, ending the late payment crisis - Local entrepreneurs in the Livingston constituency to benefit from 69,000 Start Up Loans and new support to grow and export Sign up to our daily newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to Edinburgh News, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... The Government has today unveiled its flagship Small to Medium Sized Enterprise (SME) Strategy, a bold plan to unleash the potential of the UK's 5.5 million small businesses and drive economic growth across every region. As part of the announcement, the Government will introduce the toughest legislation in over 25 years to end the late payment crisis, which currently costs the UK economy £11bn annually and forces 38 businesses to close every day. The new laws will cap payment terms at 60 days, with a further reduction to 45 days within five years, and give the Small Business Commissioner new powers to fine large firms that fail to pay on time. Key measures include: Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Gregor Poynton MP and Rt Hon Jonathan Reynolds MP Secretary of State of Business and Trade. Stronger legal protections to end late payments and support fairer business practices £4bn finance boost, including 69,000 Start Up Loans and a £3bn expansion of the British Business Bank's ENABLE programme New support for main streets, slashing of red tape to boost the hospitality and arts sector through hospitality zones; Main Street Rental Auctions to fill vacant main street premises; and Permanent cut to business rates for retail, hospitality and leisure on the main street from 2026. Action on personal guarantees, ensuring entrepreneurs are protected when accessing finance A revamped Business Growth Service to help SMEs scale, export and innovate The SME Strategy is a central pillar of the Government's Plan for Change, working alongside the Industrial and Trade Strategies to deliver long-term, sustainable growth. Commenting on the announcement, Gregor Poynton, Member of Parliament for the Livingston constituency said: 'This is a game-changer for small businesses within the Livingston constituency. From tackling late payments to unlocking billions in finance, this strategy gives our local entrepreneurs the tools they need to grow and thrive.' 'This strategy will mean that it will be easier to fill our towns and villages. As there will be less red tape once new business owners move in, bringing new life to these areas thanks to permanent cuts to business rates on main street, better access to funding, lower costs to businesses and more support. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'Small businesses are the backbone of our economy, employing 60% of the workforce. This strategy shows that Labour is serious about backing them with real action – not just words. 'It's proof that we are delivering on our Plan for Change and building an economy that works for every part of the UK. 'I have been meeting with local business, doing round tables with different SMEs through the West Lothian Chamber of Commerce or RBS Lunch to hear their concerns. 'If you or someone you know run a business, please reach out to my office, I would love to hear from you'. Business and Trade Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said: Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad "This country is home to some of the brightest entrepreneurs and innovative businesses in the world, and we want to unleash their full potential by giving them back time and money to do what they do best - growing our local economies. "Our Small Business Strategy is the most comprehensive package of support in a generation, slashing unnecessary admin costs, making it easier for businesses to set up shop and giving SMEs the financial backing they need. "This is our Plan for Change in action, putting more money in people's pockets, boosting local communities and ensuring Britain is a great place to do business and thrive." Small Business Minister Gareth Thomas said: 'I want the UK to be the best place in the world to start a business, grow and succeed - and that's why we've taken bold steps today. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'Too many small firms go under each year because they aren't paid on time - that is completely unacceptable. 'I hear all too often about businesses who just don't have the cash needed to start up or grow. Today, we've announced measures as part of our Plan for Change to tackle all of those issues and beyond. This is the government listening to businesses, working with them, and delivering real change.' To book a visit with Gregor Poynton MP at your local business contact his office at [email protected]
