Thirty-Fifth Report
of Session
2024-25
Department for
Education
Introducing T
Levels
Introduction from
the Committee
In September 2020, the Department for Education (the Department)
introduced T Levels, two- year technical qualifications for 16-
to 19-year-olds across a range of skills such as early years
education, healthcare and digital. As at March 2025, the
Department had introduced 21 T Levels, with 16 of these delivered
on time. One more will be introduced in September 2025, and two
existing T Levels will be stopped.
Designed to support young people into skilled employment and
bridge skills gaps, a T Level equates to three A levels and
involves an industry placement and more learning hours than
similar technical qualifications. Those involved in developing
and delivering T Levels include: the Institute for
Apprenticeships and Technical Education (IfATE), which contracts
with organisations to develop and award T Levels; employers, who
contribute to developing the qualifications and provide industry
placements; and colleges, who teach students and organise their
placements.
The Department is responsible for securing value for money from T
Levels. Given their design, they cost more per student than other
level 3 qualifications. The future economic benefits of T Levels,
critical to assessing their success, are uncertain. The
Department's current best judgement is that T Levels will be 25%
more valuable, with an estimated economic benefit of around
£23,000 per student over their lifetime.
Based on a report by the National Audit Office, the Committee
took evidence on 24 April 2025 from the Department for Education.
The Committee published its report on 27 June 2025. This is the
government's response to the Committee's report.
Relevant reports
Government response
to the
Committee
- The government agrees with the Committee's recommendation.
Target implementation
date: March
2026
2.TheDepartmentforEducation(thedepartment)iscommittedtoexpandingtheuptake
and completion of T Levels to help students reach their potential
and meet the evolving skills demands of the economy. Over 90% of
the first two cohorts of T Level completers are in employment or
further study, and 71% remain in the same field astheir TLevel.
Recognition of T Levels by higher education institutes is
growing, with 166 universities now accepting at least one T
Level.
- The department will build on this by growing awareness and
enrolments in T Levels whilst maintaining a high-quality offer.
The department will proceed with removing funding of
overlapping large
qualifications, encouraging a shift towards T Levels. The
'Skills for Life' campaign will continue, to raise awareness of
the importance of skills and increase awareness of T Levels and
will align with departmental priorities. The department is
working to improve careers guidance to inform student choices.
- Provider confidence in T Level delivery is key to encourage
student choice. The department will support providers to maintain
a high-quality offer to boost student uptake, through continued
investment in professional development for teachers, and support
to source industry placements. The department will continue to
promote T Levels via key moments in the year – T Levels Week, T
Level Thursday and T Level Results Day to raise awareness and
subsequently grow student numbers.
- The department will streamline T Level content to appeal to
diverse groups of students, alongside ensuring marketing content
is diverse. Updated specifications for the Digital, Construction,
and Education & Early Years routes have been introduced from
September 2025.
- The department's plan will be fully implemented by September
2029.
- The government agrees with the Committee's recommendation.
Target implementation
date: December
2025
- The department agrees that it should continue to improve
employer awareness of T Levels, to help increase the
availability of industry placements. The department has already
taken steps to improve employer awareness. There are now over
1,000 members of the
T Level Ambassador
Network, a network of employers and providers who promote T
Levels on a voluntary basis across the country and help to raise
awareness of T Levels amongst providers and employers to support
the creation of industry placements. The department plans to
appoint regional T Level Ambassador Network chairs this year to
better promote T Levels locally. The department has also recently
introduced new flexibilities to
industry placement delivery and targeted
Employer Support
funding to continue to improve placement availability.
- The department recognises that it can do more to grow the
number of high-quality industry placements offered by
employers, including in leveraging Local Skills Improvement
Plans and building on existing work with integrated care boards
in the NHS, and will set out further plans by December 2025.
- The government agrees with the Committee's recommendation.
Target implementation
date: Autumn
2025
- The Curriculum and
Assessment Review Interim Report highlighted that T
Levels are becoming an established brand which support
successful outcomes for learners taking them.
- The department is developing a post-16 education and skills
strategy to be published in autumn 2025 and will set out its
system-wide approach to ensuring every learner has a clear
route to further study or work, guided by the Curriculum and
Assessment Review, and strengthening support for the Further
Education (FE) workforce to boost teaching quality and sector
prestige. As part of this the government will set out clearly
where T Levels will sit alongside other funded qualifications
and their purpose.
- The department is working closely with Skills England to
make sure that students have clear routes into skilled
professions. To provide further clarity for learners, Skills
England have published a set of occupational maps
for students to access to establish the types of careers
technical education can lead to.
- The government agrees with the Committee's recommendation.
Target implementation
date: Spring
2026
- There is an annual review process that is undertaken by
awarding organisations (AOs) and Skills England to review the
content for each T Level in delivery and make any changes to
content based on sectoral needs. This process is more agile
than for other qualifications that are in the market, and the
department will ensure that where changes are identified
through this process, they are implemented as soon as it is
practically possible. For example, the department has already
reduced the Education and Early Years assessments from two core
exams to one. Development work is ongoing for T Levels in
health and science. These revised T Levels will have their
first teach in September 2026. The department will consider
further development work in future iterations of T Level
contracts as the opportunities for re- procurement arise and
where standards necessitate in-flight changes to content.
- As Skills England becomes increasingly embedded, the
department will work with them to ensure that T Level content
is reviewed regularly and updated where needed, to continue to
ensure that they provide an excellent pathway to support entry
into the government's priority sectors.
- The government agrees with the Committee's recommendation.
Target implementation
date: Spring
2026
- The department has a benefits management strategy which is
reviewed annually. The department uses several published data
sets to measure key benefits and key performance indicators.
These include:
- The Technical Education Learners Survey to measure learner
outcomes and destinations; career planning and decision making;
and overall reported satisfaction with their T Level
experience.
- The Employers Skills Survey which tracks employers'
awareness, interest and capacity to
offer T Levels, and how much employers value T Levels when
recruiting.
- The Pupil Parent Learner Panel survey to track awareness of
T Levels and appetite amongst students and parents.
- The economic benefit of students taking a T Level will
depend on several factors which the department keeps under
review including student enrolments, the funding that is
invested into the programme (dependent on annual departmental
set budgets), and progression outcomes. The department will
update this assessment at regular intervals in line with
receipt of relevant data.
- The department will continue to review its benefits
management strategy annually and review data sources for
realising benefits.
- The government agrees with the Committee's recommendation.
Target implementation
date: December
2025
- The department has regular 1:1 engagement with colleges,
which helps to understand and address any T Level-related
funding pressures as part of their overall financial position.
T Levels are typically a small part of a college's overall
funding allocation, and T Level learner fees are a small
proportion of the funding that schools and colleges receive to
provide
T Levels (less than 10%). Funding information is given to
providers in annual 16-19 funding guidance. After recent
changes to T Level contracts following the most recent awarding
organisation re-procurement, the new learner fees are broadly in
line with 3 A levels.
3.ThedepartmenthasfourhigherfundingbandsforTLevelparticipationfundingfor
16- 19-year-olds, compared to other 16-19 study programmes in
recognition of the additional hours. The department has supported
providers by introducing an additional temporary 5% uplift to the
T Level funding rate for academic year 2025-26. This reflects
that, although now moreestablished,TLevels
continuetobemoreexpensive, onaverage,todeliver intheearly years.
The department will continue to workclosely with
providerstobuildour assessment of ongoing costs to providers as T
Level cohorts grow.
- The government agrees with the Committee's recommendation.
Target implementation
date: December
2025
- As a first step, the 6,500-delivery plan will provide
detail on the department's approach to college teacher
recruitment and retention in high-priority areas, alongside
schools, including how the department will measure, track and
record progress against the pledge.
- Additionally, the post-16 education and skills strategy
will be published in autumn 2025 and will set out our
system-wide approach to ensuring every learner has a clear
route to further study or work, guided by the Curriculum and
Assessment Review, and strengthening support for the FE
workforce to boost teaching quality and sector prestige.
- The department is already taking steps to strengthen
construction skills and support the recruitment and retention
of industry-experienced teachers, through the development of a
new Further Education (FE) Teacher Industry Exchange scheme.
This initiative will foster partnerships between colleges and
construction companies, enabling more professionals from
industry to transition into teaching, while also offering
current FE teachers' opportunities to refresh and update their
industry knowledge and skills.
- The annual publication of the Further Education Workforce
in England publication will serve as the most reliable source
for tracking progress on recruitment and retention across the
sector, as well as for understanding vacancy rates across the
sector to enable the department to identify the areas of
greatest challenge. Following the next publication of the
Further Education Workforce data, the department will provide
its first update on progress being made on teacher recruitment
and retention, as well as the pledge to deliver 6,500
additional teachers. In between data collections, the biannual
update will set out progress on programme delivery to address
key skills shortages.
- The department has already taken substantial steps to
support recruitment and retention of staff in FE. Despite
challenging fiscal conditions, the department has prioritised
funding for colleges as set out above. Additionally, to help
meet the growing demand from an increasing number of young
learners, the Department is also investing over £1.2 billion
annually in Skills – supporting 1.3 million 16–19-year-olds
each year – including 65,000 additional learners by 2028/29.
- The Targeted Retention Incentive (TRI) will also continue
to offer financial support to retain teachers in the areas of
greatest need in all FE colleges.
