Opinion24th September 2024

Labour’s post-16 pause and review leaves settings in a tricky position

Caroline Doherty

We all want the best vocational pathways for our students, but implementation is as important as design in getting that right

This article was originally published in Schools Week on Monday 23 September 2024.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves is trailing the tough choices her government will have to make in the upcoming budget. Her colleague, Bridget Phillipson, has some difficult decisions of her own, not least what to do about post-16 vocational qualifications.

I have worked in and around education for a long time but, I’ll admit it, I didn’t really understand what applied general qualifications (AGQs) like BTECs were until I started working at Ark a couple of years ago.

I took A levels. Indeed, most teachers, politicians and journalists take A levels, and therein lies the challenge. BTECs happen to somebody else. In fact, some 590,000 young people are currently studying a vocational qualification at risk of being defunded in favour of T levels.

Ark’s Professional Pathways programme combines BTECs with an extended curriculum covering elements such as leadership, teamwork and experiences with employers.

Taking this vocational route does not prevent students from accessing higher education. Far from it.  Roughly 80 per cent of our BTEC students do, and a significant proportion of them to top-third universities.

At Ark and nationally, AGQs play an important role in social mobility. One in four undergraduates took BTECs, and BTEC entrants are more likely to be from disadvantaged backgrounds than their A-level peers.

Alongside many others in the sector, we questioned the Conservative government’s decision to defund BTECs that overlap with the newly created T levels. We felt schools and colleges needed more time to plan, adjust and implement these.

So, we were pleased when the new government committed to a pause on the defunding and a review of how to move forward. Getting the right mix of post-16 options alongside A levels is an important matter.

Indeed, it has been the goal of successive administrations to achieve parity between academic and vocations routes. However, turning this aspiration into a reality has always proved tricky.

Setting up new qualifications can’t be done in a vacuum

In recent years alone, we’ve seen diplomas come and go, got as far as the teething phases of T levels, and if you blinked you might have missed last year’s Advanced British Standard.

Labour are committed to T levels and making them a success, but evidently recognise that the way they have been introduced so far has put their success in jeopardy.

One chief reason why this is so hard is that, unlike A levels which mostly ladder up clearly to university entrance, vocational qualifications connect more directly to the world of work. Setting up new qualifications can’t be done in a vacuum.

In fact, one of the challenges of implementing T levels will placing each student in a workplace for 45 days. Although a potentially game-changing aspect of the qualification, this creates additional workload for the school and the employer.  It will be incredibly challenging to find the huge volume of placements in the right workplaces and locations to support every student.    

Schools will need a strong network of local connections to make this happen. Employers, for their part, will need time to understand the value of these qualifications. And, of course, there will be geographical variations about the types of opportunities on offer.  

Likewise, parents and pupils themselves need to be convinced the new qualifications offer access to desirable careers or open up opportunities for further development.

For all these reasons, the governments’ pause is welcome and necessary. There are strong arguments for retaining BTECs. Equally, T levels will struggle to fulfil their promise if they have to compete with BTECs in perpetuity or if they are rushed. And importantly, parity of esteem will remain elusive if things keep swapping and changing.

One thing is clear, the plan to communicate a decision at Christmas leaves settings in a tricky position – hedging their bets in anticipation of a result that could leave them with just two terms to design a new curriculum, train their staff and to adjust to a dramatic switch.

The new government have tough calls to make across the board and so far, they have been making good ones on education. Whatever they do decide, they must give settings, pupils, parents and employers enough time to transition.

Policy makers have had several goes at getting this right, but our young people only get one. Let’s hope the way forward has consideration for their futures at its heart.